can someone come and talk to me about throat cancer?

[abbierhodes]

A close relative has just been diagnosed. At the moment his doctors are talking about removing his larynx. However, we are awaiting further results to see whether or not the cancer is also in his lungs. If it is, the outlook is not good.

I am trying to find out more (information helps me to cope) but google is hurting my head. I'm not even sure what my questions are. Has anyone had experience that they don't mind sharing?

It doesn't have to be positive, by the way. We are preparing for the worst. (While hoping for the best, obviously.)

Hi abbie so sorry to hear that your relative has throat cancer. My uncle (mums brother) died a couple of years ago with throat cancer, I think his had spread quite abit. Towards his final months, he was very frail, he couldn't eat or drink, on a positive note, My friends dad has just recovered from throat cancer, it was caught early and he is doing very well. I hope your relatives cancer hasn't spread to the lungs, let us know how it goes, and please try not to google as that will make you feel terrible.

Hi Sorry to hear this has happened to your relative.

This is the number of a charity helpline that deals with throat cancer:

01924 950 950 mouth cancer foundation

It's live during the week 9-5, but you can leave your details on their answer machine and they will call you back. Hope they can answer some questions for you. Their website might have some info too.

My dad was diagnosed with it. He had it removed (and a secondary in another part of his throat) and bounced back pretty well to start with. The radiotherapy hit him hard tho. He couldnt swallow and was tube fed after that which he found hard but got used to. He also couldnt speak, but found ways to communicate in time and had a reasonable quality of life.

The cancer didnt kill him, he died a few years later of something unrelated, as it happens.

Hope the info is usefull rather than upsetting

Hi, I'm really sorry you ate going through this. I dont know if this is of any help but my dad had his larynx removed after being diagnosed with cancer of the larynx rather than throat cancer. He'd had radiotherapy previously but the cancer returned. He learned to speak using oesophageal voice, with the help of speech therapy, and speaks very clearly. It took a while for him to get used to breathing through the stoma in his neck - and he could no longer go swimming, but he learnt to use his new voice really quickly. This was in 1983 so I'm sure medical technology has moved on a lot since then. If your relative does have his larynx removed there will be other people who have had the same operation and some who use oesophageal voice as well as others who use different techniques or equipment to speak.

Thank you all. Some very reassuring information here- so all is not bleak, then, if his larynx is removed? I knew there were techniques for talking again but I didn't know how successful they were. It sounds reasonably positive.

We'll know in a couple of days whether it has spread, and the extent of what can be done, if anything, to save him. I'm trying hard not to google. I will keep popping back to this thread from time to time- thank you all for posting.