Hi, my husband’s HPV oropharyngeal cancer appeared as swollen lymph nodes on one side of his neck. He went to see his ENT and was given antibiotics. The nodes went away. Half a year later, the nodes came back. He was referred to the otolaryngologist at the hospital who gave him a biopsy which involved putting him under and scoping a quarter ( from the neck down) of his body. I have forgotten what it was called, quadri something. That was how the SCC was diagnosed. The whole time he was “healthy” and there was nothing out of the normal for him. He also had a CAT scan prior to the biopsy. The otolaryngologist at the hospital told us that it’s a cancer that cannot be detected by blood tests. They found the HPV by applying a dye to the biopsy sample. In fact, the doctor said we would be hearing about HPV related cancer more and more. That was in 2015.

The problem with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer is that it is usually free of noticeable symptoms until it’s quite late. When I asked the doctor what stage the cancer it was at, he said one of the higher stages. My husband chose to think it was stage three, I chose to think it was stage four.

Having gone through the cancer journey with my husband, I would say now that it does not matter what stage the cancer’s at since the treatment is essentially the same. The patient is given radiation (in my husband’s case IMRT) and chemo. For this reason, I would suggest focusing instead on how to mitigate the range of side effects of the treatment such as intake, dental care, dealing with the sores that result from radiation and doing the swallowing exercises. I also talked to my husband about accepting that he has the cancer and to work himself towards being able to talk about it with his friends and family instead of keeping it a secret, which a lot of people seem to want to do. It is emotionally so much more helpful to accept than to skirt around it.

Please come back and post if you have questions. We are in your corner.