JJ, Google can be a scary place! Put in enough details and a 75 year old man could be told he is pregnant.

Im not sure of your age but Ive seen several cases of OC in younger patients. Several in their early 20s and even a few diagnosed at only 17 and 18 years old. Over the past decade or so the demographics of OC has changed from being an old man who is a smoker and drinker to younger healthier patients. Unfortunately there seems to be a learning curve at many in the medical and dental professions to adopt these changes in the average OC patient profile.

I hope your symptoms turn out to be anything except oral cancer. Its a hard disease with difficult treatments to get thru.

Best wishes!

J I had a sore throat that persisted for a few weeks, and a lump in my neck. The lump got quite large (36mm), but because it was soft and deep in the neck it was not obvious. I knew something wasn't quite right but I wasn't feeling sick enough to go to a doctor. I went to the GP for a checkup and mentioned it. He noted an "asymmetry" in the throat where the tonsils used to be, as well as the lump in the neck. A CT, FNA, MRI, bone scan and PET CT later and I was thoroughly diagnosed and sent on the treatment roller coaster.

I am sure there is more to the ENTs discounting cancer than just your age. This type of cancer is pretty well understood, and has particular behaviours in how it grows and spreads. Also in younger people I think it would progress fairly quickly, being fed by an active metabolism. Again I am no expert, but I think if you had what I have for the 5 months you have had symptoms, it would have grown to an undeniable stage in you by now, and it hasn't. Perhaps the ENTs just need to explain the reasons they are discounting it better?

You can take some solace that whatever the cause of your current symptoms, you'll be under medical supervision while that is under treatment. Doctors will be feeling your neck for bumps and looking down your throat regularly and will be able to identify any changes.

Hi Christine I'm 28. Though reasonably young I know it is possible.

Dave you mentioned metabolism. Mine is super quick. I workout regularly and eat 6-8 times a day. I have noticed that feel somewhat more fatigued than usual particularly more recently and most notably while training. I keep telling myself it is just the stress that is doing it. It also seems that when I take any sort of antibiotics (as gross as this sounds) I break out in anal and penile fungal infections. I then treat it and its gone again. I also freak out about this and went and got a full STD workup which all come back negative. At once point I was so concerned about HIV that I got 2 antibody tests and then made my doctor order a viral load test. All came back negative.

Your note on the lump being soft is interesting. I have come across a paper that stated HPV throat cancer tend to metastasize to lymph nodes in a pseudo-cystic manner.

What I know is that there is something definitely taking its toll on me and I really need to pursue it. Like you I feel like something just isn't quite right. I have a meeting tomorrow with the ENT which I will raise all my concerns. I find it difficult to express them as I feel like I will just make a fool out of myself because I have work myself up over it.

Hi J,

I revisited this thread and read through the posts. Of course no one here is a doctor but we've all had cancer.

In you OP you stated you've had symptoms for three months. It's just my opinion but after 5 months, 4 ENTs, tests etc., you'd be getting pretty ill by now. You're young, don't smoke and barely drank. While it's possible to get OC, this isn't presenting as such.

I had no symptoms as did many but I did have a node that grew. It was hard and immobile. From August 2012 when I first noticed it along with a sinus infection until November 2012 when I was diagnosed, it grew. By the time I stated treatment I was sick and I felt sick.

I know you don't feel well. Stress and anxiety concerning a variety of health concerns will and does present itself in physical ways and takes a toll. It's just a suggestion but perhaps pursuing that avenue would shed some light on your symptoms.

I hope your visit to the ENT is unremarkable and you get to the bottom of things.

Positive thoughts and prayers.

"T"

A lot of HPV SCC patients discover their cancer because they find a painless lump on one side of their neck. The lump is often biopsied thru a FNA. I had no other symptoms other than my totally painless lump.

Thanks for these posts. I feel reassured by them. I am probably just stressing over nothing. I meet with my ENT soon. This thing is driving me nuts. I was at my doctor last night as my wife was feeling quite sick. He checked in with me as well and said it is likely I have something similar to vasomotor rhinitis and this could be a life long thing. He said the maxillary mucous retention cysts are likely from this. He said he would easily diagnose this based on my test if my mucus was thin not thick. my sputum test came back normal though the report came back with a comment that the mucus was remarkably viscid.

All in all you are probably right and that is the reason my ENT thinks along those lines too. I do not have typical symptoms of cancer and on top of that I have a normal blood workup, a sinus CT, neck of my MRI and 3 ENTs actually look inside my nose and find nothing.

The ENT had a look at my MRI and said is showed nothing. I asked him about HPV throat cancer and he said that I do not have HPV cancer and that he sees this all the time and would know if it was there. He then looked dowm my nose again and found nothing. The spray he uses before inserting the camera in my nose seems to turn my mucus runny. He said there was nothing sinister and I need to switch from chasing a diagnosis to learning to live with it. He felt it might be stress related and he sees cases like this all the time.

While I haven't resolved this completely I will have to take comfort that no diagnosis is better than getting a bad diagnosis. I'm going to try and telax more. He said focus my attention on something else because constantly thinking about it will only make me upset, worried and will exacerbate the problem. I guess there is nothing I can do.

J that is great news. As I said, ENTs see this cancer all the time and would not discount it lightly. The mucous thing I would fiddle with the diet maybe? See if some things make it better or worse. Plenty of avenues to Google for more pleasant things like food and stress relievers than oral cancers.

Next thing you put into Google, make it "confirmation bias". In my experience its a real phenomena and something that strengthens your belief in something to the point you get overly stressed about it, and can end up making poor decisions. Part of my cancer journey has been learning to sort through information better and learn what I should pay attention to and what I should disregard.

Thanks Dave. I'm still not 100% on it being stress related but nonetheless I am learning to base my emotional response on the facts from tests rather than my own imagination. No tests have concluded anything sinister to the point where my ENT has completely ruled it out. It has been 5 months from the onset and my symptoms have barely progressed.

I also asked my ENT about vasomotor rhinitis. He also said I do not have this. It is common in old people and I do not have symptoms to suggest this is it.

For now I'm going to try one more nasal spray and look to my diet.

Many thanks to everyone on this forum. I'm glad I ended up here. Everyone has been so supportive and helpul along the way. I wish you all the best.

Goodluck with the treatment Dave. I will keep you and others on this forum in my prays.

Cheers
J.

I would chase candidas, mucus management and enjoying life. You'll gain from all 3.