Pharyngeal cancers are treated differently depending on which part of the pharynx is affected. Surgery can be used for many oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers. Nasopharyngeal cancers are rarely treated with surgery. They may be treated with chemotherapy (often before radiation therapy), radiation therapy (for early-stage cancers), or chemoradiation.
Treatment options
Small oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers can often be treated with minimally invasive surgery, which is sometimes followed by radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy. If the cancer is large or advanced and surgery is an option, it is more likely to be open surgery through a cut in the neck. Surgery is often followed with radiation therapy and possibly chemotherapy. If surgery is not possible due to the size or location of the tumour, radiation therapy or chemoradiation is usually given instead.
Types of pharyngeal surgery
Different types of pharyngeal surgery include:
- hypopharyngectomy – removes part of the hypopharynx (lower throat)
- pharyngolaryngectomy – removes all of the larynx and part of the pharynx; this surgery is less common and is similar to a total laryngectomy
- oropharyngectomy – a less common surgery that removes some of the oropharynx (the part of the throat behind the mouth).
For more on this, see our general section on Surgery.
→ READ MORE: Surgery for laryngeal cancer
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A/Prof Martin Batstone, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon and Director of the Maxillofacial Unit, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, QLD; Polly Baldwin, 13 11 20 Consultant, Cancer Council SA; Martin Boyle, Consumer; Dr Teresa Brown, Assistant Director Dietetics, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Honorary Associate Professor, University of Queensland, QLD; Dr Hayley Dixon, Head, Clinical Support Dentistry Department, WSLHD Oral Health Services, Public Health Dentistry Specialist, NSW; Head and Neck Cancer Care Nursing Team, Royal Melbourne Hospital, VIC; Rhys Hughes, Senior Speech Pathologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, VIC; Dr Annette Lim, Medical Oncologist and Clinician Researcher – Head and Neck and Non-melanoma Skin Cancer, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, VIC; Dr Sweet Ping Ng, Radiation Oncologist, Austin Health, VIC; Deb Pickersgill, Senior Clinical Exercise Physiologist, Queensland Sports Medicine Centre, QLD; John Spurr, Consumer; Kate Woodhead, Physiotherapist, St Vincent’s Health, Melbourne, VIC; A/Prof Sue-Ching Yeoh, Oral Medicine Specialist, University of Sydney, Sydney Oral Medicine, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, NSW.
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