If you ask me what is the most important moment in the course of this disease I will tell you that the moment of the diagnosis is definitely the most important one. And this is not because it is well remembered as the beginning of your problems and worries, but because it determines the future course of your life.
If this moment appears too late in the evolution of cancer and it is already in the metastatic stage, all you can do is fight a lot and pray to stay alive as long as possible. So the best thing for you to do is to try and make it possible for this moment to happen earlier. But if you want to do this you first have to know what are the throat cancer signs and symptoms and to read them, getting to the conclusion that there is something suspicious and you must go to the doctor.<
I will try to tell you a few things about the basic throat cancer signs and symptoms as they are described by most web sites that deal with cancer and also by the specialized books that approach this topic. First of all you will notice a light throat sore and also some difficulty swallowing food. Then you will cough every now and then more and more seriously. Of course these sypmtoms are also associated with other health conditions like a cold or flu, but when they signal throat cancer they do not go away and persist for more than two weeks. If you are sick you lose appetite, so will notice a sudden weigh loss that can't be explained as you don't seem to be suffering from any disease and you are not on a diet either.
Sometimes the throat cancer is not detected until it reaches the lymph nodes around the neck and behind the ears and in this case you will feel an accute ear ache. In this stage of the cancer, which is pretty advanced since it got to the lymph nodes, you may also feel a lump at the back of your mouth, throat or neck. That is the tumour expending in size and it will end up suffocating you unless it is removed. At this point the tumour can cause sudden changes in your voice tone and it will seem more hoarse and having a different tonality.
It may even cause you difficulty breathing and this is certainly alarming. The last and most frightening symptom is when you start coughing blood or having blood in your sputum. Some people only go to the doctor when they notice this symptom because they think all the other symptoms are only signs of a less serious disease. So my advice is for all of you to go to the doctor immediately when you motice something different about your body and if it's nothing you will be relieved, but if it's serious you will thank me because you get the chance to fight the disease in the early stage and you stand more chances this way.