Voice enhancement

Hi, sorry to hear of your diagnosis.

My friend was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in August 2023, she too lost her voice.  Apparently, this happens with a lot of people diagnosed with SCLC.  She was told, because the tumour was large it was pressing on the laryngeal nerve which controls the muscles of the larynx and vocal cords, effectively paralysing it.  After her chemotherapy treatment, which shrunk the tumour, her voice gradually returned as the pressure on her vocal cords was reduced, although it took about a year to fully return. 

She is now almost three years since diagnosis and treatment and is doing really well.  She is still on immunotherapy, which has just been extended from her initial two year course. 

You are still very early days into your diagnosis, but once your treatment takes effect you will feel better and your voice will return, albeit in time.  

Regarding your enquiry about a speech therapist - they would not be able to help, your voice loss is a physical symptom of your diagnosis, and only ongoing treatment will help resolve it.

I hope my information regarding my friend helps.

Best wishes.

Ann

Hi Geoff

So very sorry that you have cause to be on here.

Have you been given your treatment plan yet?  If your plan includes chemo, then you may not need to look for any assistance with your voice as SCLC responds really well to chemo in terms of shrinking tumours (I know from personal experience of SCLC).

So my advice is to hang fire until you start your treatment.

I wish you the best possible outcomes.

Kegsy x

Hi Geoff. NSCLC here, diagnosed in May 2023, followed by four cycles of chemo which were stopped as not working well, then radiotherapy (not curative) followed.

All was OK until summer 2024, when things were on the move again and I started a 2 yr course of Pembrolizumab in August. By the end of October, my voice was awful and the consultant put it down to either RT damage to the nerve concerned or possibly tumour pressure on the nerve and referred me to ENT. 

I was seen by a ENT consultant fairly quickly, but to be honest, as I could breathe and swallow, he didn't seem that bothered. He said that my left vocal cord was permanently paralysed in an open position. I asked to be referred to SLT to see if they could help me use what little voice I had more effectively and had to wait 7 months for that appointment. I understand there's a national shortage of SLTs.

The SLT wasn't really able to help improve things but her explanation of how vocal cords etc worked was really helpful.

During the wait, I was having a bloody awful time because communication was so difficult and people talked over me ALL the time. I ended up buying a handbell hoping to train them like Pavlov's dogs. Even my Alexa started whispering back to me - not joking! I also did some research though and found that there is a procedure whereby a 'filler' can be injected into the vocal cord to plump it up and make it fill out the gap, thus helping the other vocal cord with the heavy lifting and also helping to prevent the escape of residual air that would otherwise sit obligingly under the voicebox and be there ready to blurt out "sorry" or whatever.

It took a while, but I was eventually referred to another ENT consultant at a different hospital and about 4 months later had the procedure (vocal cord medialisation) done and it gave me a huge quality of life boost. Why the original consultant didn't even mention this as an option is a cause for intense irritation. When we're already going through so much, it's a kick in the teeth to have to research and self-advocate in this way.

It no doubt wouldn't be suitable for everyone, but I'd definitely ask your oncology consultant about a referral if deemed appropriate. I've had the longer lasting filler (maybe 12 months) whereas the shorter lasting one lasts around 3 months I think. 

I still dread conversations with call centre staff (but then don't we all) but my voice is so much better than it was. Just upsetting that I had 17 months of extra crappiness on top of the incurable cancer stuff to deal with.

Good luck.

Kate