Major increase in tongue and tonsil cancers

A major increase in cancers of the tonsil and base of tongue, largely due to sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV), is behind the efforts of a Cork hospital to raise funds for new equipment that would make treating these cancers more humane.

Consultant Otolaryngologist, Patrick Sheahan, a head, neck & thyroid surgeon at the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH) said they are hoping to acquire a “curved laser” machine to treat certain cancers that occur too far back in the throat to be treated using the hospital’s “straight laser” machine.

“The problem with HPV [oral] cancers is where they’re occurring, at the back of the tongue and the pharynx. You can’t treat it using a straight line laser,” Mr Sheahan said.

However a curved laser would effectively allow surgeons “shoot around corners”, he said.

Mr Sheahan said there had been a “huge increase” in the past 20 years in oral cancers caused by HPV.

He said the HPV virus was transmitted through “orogenital contact”, in other words, oral sex, but also “just by oral contact, such as deep kissing”.

Sexual contacts, both conventional and oral, are a means of transferring the HPV virus through direct skin to skin contact.

In the last couple of decades patients with oropharyngeal cancers (very back of mouth and part of throat) were treated by chemoradiotherapy (combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy).

However the toxicity of this treatment was huge, Mr Sheahan said, with many patients requiring long-term feeding tubes, difficulty swallowing, and in some cases death of jaw bone due to radiation damage.

Now however, robotic and laser surgery offered more humane treatment options.

As well as the need for a curved laser machine, SIVUH is also seeking to replace its straight laser machine, which Mr Sheahan said had been used in the removal of a very large number of vocal cord cancers “with excellent results, however, it urgently needs replacement”.

The machines cost in the region of €60,000- €100,000 and as part of the fundraising effort, the head and neck oncology unit at SIVUH will host a masked ball in the Rochestown Park Hotel on October 3 next.

Up to 300 cases of mouth and pharynx cancer are detected in Ireland each year, with 100 or more deaths.

Next week, on September 17, free mouth cancer examinations will be available at over 500 dental surgeries countrywide and at the Cork University Dental School and Hospital as part of Mouth Cancer Awareness Day.

A list of participating dentists can be found at mouthcancerawareness.ie

Dr Conor McAlister of the Irish Dental Association said the signs and symptoms of mouth cancer may include a sore or ulcer in the mouth that does not heal within three weeks.