Symptoms and Signs, Staging and Co-Morbidity of Hypopharyngeal Cancer

Abstract

Early throat symptoms are common and a diagnosis of hypopharyngeal cancer rare; therefore, confirming or excluding a serious diagnosis is missed or overlooked by both the patient and the practitioner - however, symptoms such as throat clearing and food sticking, which persist in adult patients who have the social habit of tobacco usage and/or drink excessive alcohol should be examined by a specialist to exclude the presence of hypopharyngeal cancer. Late symptoms/signs include neck swelling (uni- or bilateral), dysphagia, odynophagia, otalgia, dysphonia, dyspnoea and stridor. Associated with advancing age and social habits, many patients have co-morbidities such as diabetes mellitus, respiratory, cardiovascular disease and behavioural health disorders that play a major role in selecting the optimal treatment and thus a likely worse long-term outcome. The majority of cases when diagnosed are at an advanced stage including evidence of local cervical nodal metastasis and distant metastasis. The TNM staging system continues to be the "gold standard" for reporting and evaluation of treatment outcomes, but more recent reports show that the use of "tumour volume" obtained from disease stage scanning of both the T and N stage are better predictors of a successful disease response outcome for the selection of a non-surgical option. Patients at presentation and those that survive curative treatment are associated with the highest risk of developing a second primary tu mour - synchronous or metachronous, involving the lung and/or the oesophagus.