Head and Neck Cancers

They no longer mean loss of voice or facial disfigurement, thanks to today’s skills and technologies

Willard Lugg, unlike patients of 20 years ago, shows no sign of having had neck cancer.

Warning Signs of Head/Neck Cancer:

• Lasting hoarseness, cough or sore throat
• Lasting ear pain
• Trouble or pain swallowing
• Trouble breathing
• Lump or mass in the neck

Like so many people with cancers of the neck,Willard Lugg of Wind Gap thought his sore throat and hoarse voice were “just a summer cold.” What finally got him to the doctor was a tender, swollen lymph gland in his neck. “I could feel it when I shaved, and it bothered me because it wouldn’t go away,” he says.

As Lugg was devastated to learn, he had a cancer that had spread to the lymph node. But where had it begun? To help solve that puzzle, Lugg’s doctor, Alan Johnson, M.D., called in an expert: head and neck surgical oncologist Daniel Kelley, M.D., of Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. “We found the primary tumor under the surface of the vocal cord,” Kelley says. “Knowing where the cancer started, we could more appropriately direct Mr. Lugg’s care.”

Twenty years ago, Lugg would have faced radical and disfiguring surgery and loss of his larynx (voice box). Meet him today and you wouldn’t know he ever had cancer. Back at work as a Lafayette College custodian, the 65-year-old says, “My throat’s fine, my voice sounds great, and I can eat pretty much anything.”

That happy outcome is a combination of advanced surgery and radiation therapy. “We surgically removed the lymph nodes in his neck but were able to treat his voice box with radiation alone,” Kelley says.

New reconstructive techniques allow specialists like Kelley to perform near-miracles with some cancer patients—for example, using flaps of intestinal tissue to reconstruct the throat, or bone from the leg or hip to rebuild the jaw. These highly skilled procedures involve working under a microscope to reattach tiny blood vessels and nerves. They can bring patients virtually back to normal, both cosmetically and functionally.

One reason head and neck cancers need such specialized care is that they’re rarely found in the early stages. “Throat screening isn’t part of a routine medical exam,” Kelley says, “and symptoms like a sore throat can easily be mistaken for other problems.”

When they are found early, these cancers are more than 90 percent curable. Even patients whose cancer has spread have a better chance in the hands of today’s specialists—as Willard Lugg can attest. “I know guys who have died of throat cancer,” he says. “I feel very lucky.”

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