Mouth, Throat & Esophageal Cancer

The majority of people acknowledge and sympathize with Elizabeth Edwards, wife of the presidential candidate, John Edwards. Hers is the story of successful recovery from the primary breast cancer, only to wake up a few years later to find out the cancer had metastasized to her bone and to her liver. We have additionally learned that although the metastasized cancer can be treated, there no longer is any hope of cure.

All Digestive Diseases

Prevalence: 60 to 70 million people affected by all digestive diseases (1996)
Mortality: 234,000 deaths, including deaths from cancer (2002)
Hospitalizations: 14 million—9 percent (2002)

Throat cancer is one of many head and neck cancers. The throat is a hollow tube about 5 inches long that starts behind the nose and roof of the mouth then merges into the windpipe and becomes the esophagus further down the neck.

The esophagus is a muscular tube that carries food and liquid from the mouth to the stomach. The esophagus is usually between 10 and 13 inches long. The normal adult esophagus is roughly three fourths of an inch across at its smallest point.

According to the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, cancer of the tongue is a malignant tumor that begins as a small lump, a firm white patch, or a sore (ulcer) on the tongue.

If untreated, the tumor may spread throughout the tongue to the floor of the mouth and to the gum (jaws). As a tumor grows, it becomes more life threatening by spreading (metastasizing) to lymph nodes in the neck and later to the rest of the body.

According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, each year in the US, approximately 30,000 people are newly diagnosed with oral cancer.

Oral cancer is the largest group of those cancers which fall into the head and neck cancer category. Common names for it include: