The most common locations for head and neck cancers—almost half of all cases—are the mouth and throat
(oral cavity and oropharynx). About a third are in the larynx.
These cancers and their treatment can have serious results because they tend to involve the upper digestive
tract and the upper respiratory tract, these tumors can interfere with eating and breathing. Laryngeal cancer
directly affects speech.
Several sensory functions are located here—vision, hearing, smel1 and taste—and the loss or malfunction of
any of them is significant.
Successful treatment must, therefore, not only include an attempt to eradicate all the cancer but also take
into account:
• The need for adequate function—swallowing, eating, speech—after treatment.
• A satisfactory cosmetic result. It is as important to consider reconstruction, rehabilitation and prostheses as it
is to achieve an adequate surgical removal.
In general, cancers of the head and neck are treated with surgery or radiotherapy or both. Because of the effect of surgery on normal function, radiotherapy may be recommended as the primary method to treat a given cancer.
Of course radiotherapy is not always successful, and surgery must then be used, if possible, to treat those patients who fail to be cured. There are important points to remember in this regard. First, the patient should be followed by the surgeon and the radiation oncologist to ensure that a failure of treatment is identified as soon as possible, so further therapy can be initiated.
