Smoking is the biggest risk factor of laryngeal cancer, which is most common among men between the ages of 50 and 60. “Although men are much more likely to get laryngeal cancer, women are starting to catch up,” explains Richard Smith, MD, head and neck cancer specialist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. Laryngeal Cancer: Knowing the Symptoms Due to new diagnostic tools and advancements in treatment, laryngeal cancer can be cured if detected in its early stages. Some early warning signs of laryngeal cancer include: A change in your voice. Because most laryngeal cancers start on a vocal cord, a change in your voice is an important, and noticeable, early warning symptom. “Any time you have a change in your voice that lasts more than three weeks, you really need to see a specialist who can look at your larynx,” Dr. Smith says. Lump in the neck. If the laryngeal cancer has spread into any of the lymph glands in the neck, the first sign may be a bump on the side of the neck. Throat pain. “A persistent sore throat or a sensation of something sticking in the throat that doesn’t go away can be a sign of laryngeal cancer above the vocal cords,” Smith says. Feeling like you need to cough. Constant irritation of the throat and feeling like you have to cough or clear your throat can be an early cancer symptom. Breathing problems. A noisy type of breathing called stridor may occur if the opening between the vocal cords is narrowed by a laryngeal cancer. Difficulty swallowing. A larger laryngeal cancer may narrow the opening of the esophagus and cause food to get stuck or come back up. Ear pain. “Sometimes pain in the throat can be felt in the ear. This is called ‘referred’ pain and can be one of the overlooked symptoms of laryngeal cancer,” says Smith. Trouble breathing. Laryngeal cancer affecting movement of vocal cords or a very extensive cancer can cause difficulty breathing. Weight loss. Unintentional weight loss may signal an underlying cancer. Laryngeal Cancer: How the Diagnosis Is Made Since normal throat exams do not include a good look at the larynx (located below the back of the tongue), the only way to diagnose laryngeal cancer early is with a small mirror placed at the back of the tongue, or with a fiber-optic laryngoscope (a thin, flexible scope that goes down the back of the throat). Both exams can be done in a specialist’s office. If the throat specialist sees a suspicious area in the larynx, a piece of tissue will be taken for a biopsy. This is done with local or general anesthesia. Laryngeal Cancer: Pinpointing Its Stage Once a diagnosis of laryngeal cancer is made, your doctor will need to determine the stage of your cancer to plan your treatment. The traditional approach to determine staging is to use imaging studies such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A new way to get a picture of laryngeal cancer is with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). A PET scan can detect very small areas of cancer and is becoming an important part of planning treatment. “We now use the PET scan on all our laryngeal cancer patients,” says Smith. “It gives us a better chance of starting out with the best treatment plan for each patient.”
