Effects of Treatment

AFTER EFFECTS OF TREATMENT OF HEAD NECK CANCERS

Head neck cancers affect the most critical aspects of speech, swallowing, smell and appearance. Therefore, its treatment also has implications in the day to day activities of the patient.

Due to surgery

  1. Changes in breathing : Occasionally, some people need a tracheostomy, which is an opening of the trachea directly onto the skin, kept open by a tracheostomy tube. It may be temporary or permanent, depending on the disease. Some patients may also need a feeding tube on a temporary or permanent basis.
  2. Changes to appearance : There will be surgical scars on the face and/or neck, which are permanent. Attempts will be made to keep the scars hidden in skin creases or do the surgery trans-orally, but this may not always be possible.
    If part of the jaw, nose or skin is removed, the face will look different. Reconstruction with a prosthesis, local flap, regional flap or free flap will restore the appearance to a great extent.
  3. Changes in speech : In tongue cancers, certain consonants will not be clearly pronounceable depending on the site and extent of surgery. In total laryngectomy, the voice box is removed, and the patient can be rehabilitated by other means.
  4. Changes in eating : Chewing and swallowing involves lips, teeth, tongue and the muscles in mouth, jaw and throat working together. Patients with a head and neck cancer have difficulty swallowing (dysphagia) before, during or after treatment. A temporary nasogastric tube is almost always placed after a major head neck surgery, but eating patterns do change depending on the site and extent of surgery. Maneuvers to overcome these difficulties will be taught to the patient as he/she recovers from the surgery.

Due to chemotherapy and radiation therapy

Mouth ulcers, nausea, vomiting, weakness, loss of hair, diarrhea, fever, loss of appetite, electrolyte imbalance etc are some of the common side-effects of chemotherapy. Radiation therapy causes dryness of mouth, difficulty in chewing, difficulty in swallowing, dental caries (saliva is protective) and altered taste sensation, but these are minimized nowadays due to sophisticated radiation techniques.

If the patient needs these modalities, he/she will be referred to the concerned specialist, who will explain the implications in greater details.