Neck Mass Came Back Cancer... Now What?

It is not uncommon that an adult patient presents with a neck mass to an ENT clinic. Unfortunately, upon workup which typically includes a needle biopsy, the neck mass comes back showing cancer, usually, a type of cancer called squamous cell carcinoma, although lymphoma, mucoepidermoid carcinoma, etc occasionally occurs as well. In this blog article, we will focus specifically on the case of the neck mass being squamous cell carcinoma. At this point, the patient's main concern is wha…

5/01/2019 0

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How Much Radiation with CT Scans of the Sinus or Neck?

Patients are often too quick to want CT scans to further evaluate their symptoms without appreciating the downsides of such exams. For ENTs, that mainly involves scans of either the Sinus or Neck. Using the website RayRisk.com , one can easily figure out how much radiation exposure occurs with not just CT scans, but all other radiological scans as well. To use as a baseline, take a regular Chest X-ray which exposes a person to 0.10 mSv of radiation. A CT Sinus scan requires ~0.7 mSv or ra…

11/29/2018 0

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How Much Radiation Exposure Occurs with a CT Scan? X-ray? Sunlight?

A common concern now is how much radiation exposure occurs with common radiological testing such as x-rays and CT scans, especially given the small increased risk of cancer with accumulated exposure over years. Of note, ultrasounds and MRI scans do not emit radiation. MRI scans use magnets while ultrasounds use sound waves in order to obtain imaging information. So, here's a chart comparing such tests with common environmental radiation exposure such as sunlight. Information taken fro…

2/13/2013 0

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Congressman Putney with Vocal Cord Cancer

Media has reported that Congressman Lacey Putney, chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee in the House of Delegates, has early stage vocal cord cancer. He is currently undergoing radiation therapy which has a high chance of cure with relatively minimal side effects along with voice preservation. My suspicion is that he is suffering from squamous cell carcinoma which is the most common type of vocal cord cancer. Though radiation therapy is a common form of treatment for this typ…

8/19/2012 0

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Levon Helm, Singer/Drummer for The Band, Dies of Throat Cancer

Levon Helm, legendary singer and drummer for The Band, died of throat cancer at age 71 on April 19, 2012. It is unclear exactly what happened over this past month, but media reports state that he was diagnosed with vocal cord cancer in 1998 and underwent 28 sessions of radiation treatment at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His cancer was almost certainly due to his 3 packs per day smoking and though he quit with his initial cancer diagnosis, cancer being what it is, it can alwa…

4/21/2012 0

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Dental X-rays Linked to Brain Tumors

In a study spanning over decades, researchers have found an association between dental x-rays and increased risk of a non-malignant type of brain tumor called meningioma. Of the four types of dental x-rays, only the full-mouth series was associated with this increased risk. More specifically, the risk was elevated with the aggregate number of full-mouth series in 10-year periods from approximately 15–40 years before diagnosis, with significant elevations in the 10-year periods beginning 2…

4/10/2012 1

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