Looking for more details throat cancer

In the United States alone, it is estimated that 3% of adults with malignancies are diagnosed with Stage 4 Throat Cancer. Based on national statistics, the bulk of the cases are usually men and they have twice the likelihood of dying from it than women. Unfortunately, about 70% of cases are already on advanced stages when a person is diagnosed. The even sadder thing about his disease is that it can be prevented just by doing one important thing – stop smoking.

Throat cancer or oropharnygeal carcinoma is basically the rapid growth of cells in the throat. It has 4 distinct stages and severity increases as the patient advances. Aside from smoking, alcohol consumption also contributes in causing the disease, although, race and genetics also play a role in this. Other causes are poor nutrition, exposure to human papillomavirus, occupational hazards and even common conditions like gastric reflux can increase your risk in getting the disease.

Stage 4 throat cancer survival rate primarily depends on the general condition of the patient, the aggressiveness of the treatment and to a certain degree the will power of the patient. The stage 4 throat cancer survival rate is considered to be good by many medical studies. During the early stages, the patient has a 90% chance of surviving the disease and about a third of it for those in the advanced stages. As mentioned earlier, with proper and early treatment, good support systems and maintaining good health can greatly increase the chance of surviving the disease.

Stage 4 Throat Cancer

Further, Stage 4 throat cancer prognosis would also be dependent on how well it is staged. This would require diagnostic examinations like biopsies to advanced imaging procedures like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Proper staging is important because this will greatly help the medical team in properly treating the patient. Sadly, there were reported cases in which the cancer returned and this can greatly lower the chances of survival to less than 5 years regardless of treatments used. Additionally, total remission can only be declared if the patient went through that 5 years without any other complications.

In a nutshell, this type of cancer is very preventable since most of the causative factors are primarily from a person’s lifestyle. So, in this case and in any other kind of disease condition, prevention is better than cure. Quitting the habit of smoking, limiting the intake of alcohol, proper nutrition and proper exercise can greatly help in lowering the risk of throat cancer. Equally as important, having a regular check-up with your doctor would also be good for early detection especially since patients cannot feel the symptoms of the disease in its early stages.

Having such an advanced form of cancer is very scary to anyone but with proper staging and treatment, an aggressive support system and the will to never give up, you can beat the crap of throat cancer into a bloody pulp.