Throat Cancer Symptoms
Learn how to distinguish flu symptoms from throat cancer symptoms: early detection could save your life and get your cancer treated.
Most of the early signs resemble flu:
- cough
- changes in your voice, such as hoarseness
- difficulty swallowing or chewing
- ear pain
- sore throat
The main difference between flu and cancer, is that cancer symptoms wont go away, flu sign
will. Do see a doctor when you notice there are no positive changes for more than two weeks or even worse, when you discover new problems such as:
- a painless lump in the throat or neck
- a sore that doesn’t heal and
- a loss in weight.
Identifying head, neck and throat cancers
Throat cancer can be differentiated in 3 types, depending on the location. Cancer of the:
- nasopharynx develops in the hollow tube in the upper part of the throat that starts behind the nose and runs down the neck to the esophagus.
- oropharynx develops in the middle part of the throat. The oropharynx includes the base of the tongue, soft palate of the back of the mouth, and the tonsils.
- hypopharynx develops in the bottom, or lower, part of the throat that leads to the esophagus – the tube that goes to the stomach – and the trachea – the tube that goes to the lungs.
Typical mouth cancer symptoms
Apart from the above, mouth cancer can specifically cause:
- unexplained pain or bleeding in the mouth
- swelling or pain in the jaw that doesn’t go away
- a sore or ulcer in the mouth that does not heal
- a feeling that something is caught in the throat
White patches (leukoplakia) or red patches (erythroplakia) anywhere in your mouth can be symptoms of "pre-malignancy": pre-malignant cells are tumors. The didn’t develop in a bad cancer but when left untreated, they could develop into one. Make sure to treat any white or red patches in your mouth.
Typical Esophageal cancer symptoms
Apart from the general indications, esophageal cancer can also cause:
- heartburn
- regurgitation of undigested food
- inability to swallow solid food and later on inability to swallow liquid food
- food sticks in esophagus
- vomiting blood or passing old blood with bowel movements
Neck cancer signs
Apart from the general indications, neck cancer can also lead to:
- loose teeth
- bad breath
- ringing or difficulty in hearing
- bleeding in the mouth or throat
- numbness in the mouth or the lips
- persistent blocked or bleeding nose
- trouble in breathing, noisy breathing
- painless white or red patches in the lining of the mouth or tongue
- decreased sense of smell
Throat cancer in a more advanced stadium
The lack of early cancer detection is still the main cause that so many cancer patients don’t get treatment to cure cancer. In a more progressed stage, the following problems can occur:
- Swelling of the lymph glands in the neck although painless at the beginning.
- In the mouth: a red or white patch could appear on the gums, tongue or the lining of the mouth. Jaws might swell and suddenly your dentures don’t fit anymore. Combined sometimes with unusual bleeding and pain.
- In the nose: your nose and sinuses can become blocked without responding to antibiotics. Combined with headaches, swollen eyes, pain in the upper teeth and a bleeding nose.
- In the ear: unusual pain in the ear can be another symptom of throat cancer. Could be combined with ringing in the ears and trouble in hearing or deafness. A constant pain in the ear while swallowing normally is the symptom of an infection or a tumor in the throat.
- In the larynx or voicebox: hoarseness is the first cancer symptom of the larynx. Most cancers in the larynx will cause a change in your voice combined with pain felt while swallowing or pain in the ear. A later stage symptom is that you clearly can no longer swallow solid food and that breathing becomes a real effort.
- In salivary glands: swelling around the jawbone or chin with numbness of face muscles and persistent pain in the neck, face and chin are clear symptoms of this type of throat cancer.
- On the skin: changes on the skin around the neck area are clear symptoms from head and neck cancer. Basal cell cancer of the skin will start in the areas that are the most exposed to the sun and look like small, pale patches that enlarge and eventually turn into an ulcer. Squamous cell cancer occurs on the lower lip or ear and malignant melanomas turn the skin blue or black or show up as a mole that changes its color, shape and size.
Throat cancer pictures
Some visible indications of throat cancer you can detect yourself:
- Persistent ulcers could be symptoms of mouth cancer
- Visible symptom of basal cell cancer
- Symptoms of squamous cell cancer, especially occurring with elderly people
Diagnosing early throat cancer is not easy because of resembling a normal cough or flu. However, when your symptoms do last, go and see your doctor immediately and insist on further checks.
