What is with all this throat cancer? Used to see this with smokers usually.
Alcohol and carbonated beverages tend to strip the mucus lining from the throat and the papilloma virus has access to the underlying tissues.
There are so many people who don’t smoke or drink getting precancerous lesions in their oral cavities -— it just is becoming more common. Some of them are from stress, some from General inflammation.
HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TAKEAWAY: each time you go to your dentist, make sure he does what he is supposed to: a full oral check for precancerous anything. Most of what he might find will never turn to cancer, but they should be watched, and you should clean up your life to keep it from turning to cancer.
Dentists are the only practitioner who sees inside your oral cavity and so they are TRAINED and supposed to do a full check for differences. It sold involve looking with a light over every surface inside your mouth. You should be asked to stick your tongue out and point it to the side, dentist should have a strong light in there, if he finds anything he should photograph it for changes later on. If your dentist doesn’t do that, and my two last dentists did not, he is shirking one of his most important duties.
(True that he can’t see in the deepest throat - if it really begins in the throat, it would need symptoms that would make you go in to a ENT. But many of them do start higher up.)
By the way, saying a prayer for this guy, may he recover fully. A mom I know has. It is possible. Very high 5 year death rates but people still make it.
Please don’t go to a dentist ever without a cancer check that should only take a few minutes. The earliest they are caught the greater the chance you will be alive in 5 years.
Heavy smokers and drinkers used to be the typical symptoms of throat cancer, yes. There is a higher incidence of throat, specifically oropharyngeal cancers that are now caused by the presence of the HPV virus. In smokers and drinkers, the cancer appears in later years; in HPV patients, the cancers appear much earlier, usually between 40-50 years old.