Is head and neck cancer easy to treat? can it usually be cured?

Challenge: The treatment of head and neck cancer often involves surgery, radiation therapy and/or chemotheapy either alone or most often in combination. Most are managed by a multidisiplinary team consisiting of surgeons, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, swallowing and voice therapists, social workers among others. There are many successes in the treatment of head and neck cancers these days.

Tough therapy: Head/neck cancer therapy is tough with need for surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy (one or all three). Rehab and recovery usually take 3-6 months minimum with sometimes permanent side effects. Early (stage 1-2) cancers have high cure rates; regional cancers spread to the neck have cure rates of 40-50%; cancer with distant spread is incurable though.

Depends: It depends on many things including the type of cancer, location, stage, overall health of the patient and other factors. The earlier the cancer is found, the higher the chance for a cure. In general, early head and neck cancers can be treated with surgery or radiation. Advanced cancers usually need a combination of treatments like surgery and postoperative radiation (+/- chemo) or chemoradiation.