teresateems5446
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I am a care- giver to a 82 yr old male who has stage 4 throat cancer..He has gone through chemo and radation..Also urbantux treatments to shrink tumors..My question is , is there anything else i can do to help him beside moral support ? He now has 2 massive lumps on back of the ear..what does that mean ? i HAVE BEEN DOING ALOT OF RESEARCH but the timing of how long one can survive at the point .Any info would be greatly appreciated ..Thank you
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Reply # - March 24, 2013, 10:02 AM
Reply To: Throat cancer
Hello teresateems, I'm sorry you are going through this. We have a good deal of information on head and neck cancer. You can find it here in "focused cancer info" drop down menu at the top of the forum pages and here, http://cancergrace.org/hnscc/
I'll ask Dr. Weiss to comment. It may take a day for him to reply so I suggest you read some of the info provided and if you learn something perhaps you can send a more specific question before Dr. Weiss replies.
All best,
Janine
forum moderator
Reply # - March 24, 2013, 12:40 PM
Reply To: Throat cancer
In most cancers, stage 4 means that the cancer has spread and is not curable. This can be the case in head/neck cancer, but some curable cancers are also called stage 4. This makes the staging confusing. When cancer is recurrent as stage IV without distant spread, cure can sometimes be salvaged. When curative options are not possible, chemotherapy (including targeted agents such as erbitux) can be used to slow the growth of the cancer with the goals of extending duration of life and quality of life. For an introduction to head/neck cancer, you might consider starting with http://cancergrace.org/hnscc/2010/05/10/intro-to-scchn/ After that, you can learn more about the treatment of incurable head/neck cancer at http://cancergrace.org/hnscc/2010/05/18/chemotherapy-for-incurable-scch…
There are lymph nodes behind the ear. Large lumps there in a patient with head/neck cancer is concerning for cancer being there. The doctor can further evaluate this with exam, imaging, and if indicated, a biopsy. The treatment depends a lot on what's come before and exactly where the cancer is. For example, if the area hasn't been radiated before, radiation might be used to prevent pain from growth of cancer at that site.
The aggressiveness of treatment of older patients with head/neck depends a lot on their functional status (energy level) and other medical problems.