Head and neck cancer treatment options
Get the facts about head and neck cancer treatment.
If you’re facing a diagnosis of head and neck cancer, you may want to learn as much
as you can about the disease and how it’s treated in order to make informed decisions.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to your healthcare team for treatment information and
support.
By talking openly with them, you can find out—and follow—the most appropriate treatment
option for you.
There are two main types of cancer treatments.
Local treatments include surgery and radiation. These
treat specific tumors without affecting other parts of the body. With surgery, the
tumor and lymph nodes may be removed. Radiation therapy may be recommended
after surgery.
Systemic or advanced treatments such as chemotherapy
circulate throughout the body to treat cancer cells that may have spread from the
site where they first developed. In some cases, combinations of different treatment
types are used.
Sometimes another treatment may be given before or after surgery. When given before
surgery, this is called neoadjuvant therapy (usually systemic chemotherapy),
used to shrink a tumor. When given after surgery, this is called
adjuvant therapy. Adjuvant therapy targets cancer cells that may have
spread in the early stages of the disease.
Learn about local cancer treatments:
Surgery
Radiation
Learn about systemic cancer treatments:
Chemotherapy
After treatment.
Regardless of how your head and neck cancer is treated, it is very important that
you go to all your scheduled follow-up appointments. This gives doctors a chance
to ask about returning symptoms and to do more physical exams, lab tests, and imaging
tests.
In addition to other exams, dental examinations may also be necessary because radiation
may harm the salivary glands, damage muscles of the jaw or injure the joints and
muscles of the jaw.
And your doctors may monitor special glands in your head and neck called the thyroid
and pituitary glands, especially if you were treated with radiation.
This is because radiation treatment can affect thyroid and hormone function.
The chance of developing a second cancer varies for everyone, but is higher for
people who smoke and drink alcohol. So your doctor may also continue
to ask you about your lifestyle.
At check-ups, you can also take the opportunity to discuss side effects. Tell your
healthcare team about anything that concerns you, and take notes. If the treatment
is working well, that’s all the more reason to go to follow-ups.
Learn about managing side effects
of head and neck cancer