How your ENT specialists in Chicago, IL, diagnose and treat head and neck cancer
Cancer is a scary diagnosis, and the keys to healing and survival are early diagnosis and early treatment. This is especially true of head and neck cancer. It’s important to know what to look for because you will most likely be the first person to notice signs and symptoms of head and neck cancer.
Dr. Gordon Siegel and Dr. Amelia Rader at Midwest ENT in Chicago, IL, provide comprehensive ear, nose, and throat services, including diagnosis and treatment of head and neck cancer.
Head and neck cancer has several signs and symptoms for you to pay attention to, including:
- Painful and difficult swallowing
- Earaches that happen frequently and take time to resolve
- Sore throats that happen frequently and last longer than 2 weeks
- Abnormal tissue or a growth in your mouth or throat
- Abnormal looking moles on your skin
- Swollen lymph nodes in your neck that don’t resolve
Doing a self-check of your skin is an important way to identify potential cancer in its early stages. You need to look for:
- Abnormal, scaly patches of skin
- Moles with a diameter greater than 6 millimeters
- Moles with an irregular, ragged border
- New moles, or moles that have reappeared after the previous removal
Another excellent way to prevent head and neck cancer is to avoid using tobacco products. Tobacco use and smoking are direct contributors to many serious health conditions, including head and neck cancer.
If you think you may have head and neck cancer, visiting your ENT specialist as soon as you can is important. Don’t delay seeking out a diagnosis. If you do have head and neck cancer, your ENT specialist can help you.
Professional treatment for head and neck cancer often includes:
- Surgery to remove precancerous or cancerous tissue or growths
- Radiation treatment to kill abnormal or precancerous, or cancerous cells
- Immunotherapy to stop the growth of cancerous cells
Your ENT specialists are there when you need them, and are experts at treating head and neck cancer. To find out more about head and neck cancer, call Drs. Gordon Siegel and Amelia Rader at Midwest ENT in Chicago, IL. You can reach them by calling (312) 988-7777, so call now!