What causes it?

There are some risk factors associated with oropharyngeal cancer:

• Smoking
• Drinking alcohol
• Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)

What are the symptoms?

The most common symptoms of oropharyngeal cancer are:

• Painless swelling or lump in the upper neck
• Sore throat that persists
• Bad breath (halitosis)
• Changes in speech (i.e. slurring or inability to form words like before)
• Weight loss
• Difficulty in swallowing
• Earache that persists

TIP: If you have any of these symptoms you should have them checked by your doctor - but remember, they are common to many illnesses other than oropharyngeal cancer.

How is it diagnosed?

After visiting your GP you will probably be referred to a hospital for some tests. These may include:

• Nasendoscope: A thin flexible tube with a light at the end passed into your nostril to get a better view of the back of your mouth and throat. A piece of affected tissue will be removed and then examined under a microscope (biopsy)
• Bone scan
• MRI
• CT scan

If the results of the test show the presence of cancer, then a referral to a doctor who specialises in its treatment will occur. 

How is it treated?

The team of doctors and other staff at the hospital will plan treatment. It will depend on the size of the tumour and where it is. Treatment may be undertaken by an oncologist (a doctor who specialises in treating cancer with chemotherapy) and a radiologist (a doctor who specialises in treating cancer with radiation).

Treatment may involve

• Radiotherapy
• Chemotherapy
• Surgery
• Monoclonal antibodies

Surgery for oropharyngeal cancer
The aim of surgery is to remove the tumour along with a margin of clear tissue.

Oropharyngeal cancer can spread to the neck’s lymph nodes. Usually the nodes are removed (neck dissection) even without them being affected as this reduces the chance of the cancer returning.

The extent of surgery depends on the spread of the tumour.

For more information about surgery, go to our surgery fact sheet

Radiotherapy for oropharyngeal cancer
Radiotherapy may be used alone, as well as post operative treatment (adjuvant chemotherapy). It’s aims are to shrink and/or destroy small cancerous areas not be removed in surgery.

It can be administered from outside the body  (external beam radiotherapy) or by implanting radioactive material into the tumour (internal radiotherapy or brachytherapy).

For more information about radiotherapy, go to our radiotherapy fact sheet

Chemotherapy for oropharyngeal cancer
Chemotherapy may be given at the same time as radiotherapy (chemo-radiotherapy), or after surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells and stop them from spreading (adjuvant chemotherapy).

For more information about chemotherapy, go to our chemotherapy fact sheet

Monoclonal antibodies for oropharyngeal cancer
Monoclonal antibodies are drugs that attach themselves to proteins (receptors) found in particular cancers, stopping the cancer cells from growing by locking onto these receptors. This makes the cancer cells more sensitive to the effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

There are some side effects of the treatments for oropharyngeal cancer which can be found in our side effects fact sheet

More information

You may want to check out the websites or fact sheets on the left hand side for more information other cancers, and related topics.

Check out our community pages to chat with other young people about oropharyngeal cancer, or its treatment….or anything really.