People usually have throat discomfort several times in their life. Sometimes it feels like something is blocking the mouth of your throat, so you can’t swallow and can’t spit it out; sometimes you feel a sense of adhesion when swallowing food and it doesn’t go smoothly. However, many people often ignore this discomfort in the throat, mistakenly thinking that it is just a chronic pharyngitis attack. Do not be careless about the discomfort in the throat! If this discomfort occurs occasionally and disappears quickly, it is often related to improper eating, so it is not necessary to pay much attention to it. If this discomfort occurs repeatedly or worsens, it is better to go to the ENT department of hospital for examination in time, because the early symptoms of hypopharyngeal cancer are the feeling of pharyngeal obstruction and sticking feeling when eating. What is hypopharynx and hypopharyngeal cancer? Generally speaking, hypopharynx is the laryngopharynx, which is the channel for food transfer from the oral cavity to the esophagus, and is an important part of the excess of the oral cavity to the esophagus. It is located at the back of the larynx, the vocal organ, and is closely related to the larynx, and its location is hidden, so its function is extremely important. The so-called hypopharyngeal cancer is an epithelial-derived malignant tumor occurring in the hypopharynx. Clinically, hypopharyngeal cancer is not common, and its annual incidence is about 0.17-0.8/100,000, accounting for 1.4%-5.0% of head and neck malignant tumors and 0.5% of systemic malignant tumors. What are the symptoms of hypopharyngeal cancer? The anatomical location of hypopharynx is relatively hidden, and its main function is to eat and swallow. Therefore, the first symptom of tumor in hypopharynx is related to swallowing, which is a sticky feeling of eating, but not necessarily obstruction of eating or difficulty in eating. In addition, when the tumor is not eating, it will show the feeling of obstruction in the pharynx, which is very similar to chronic pharyngitis, so it is easy to be ignored. Once the disease progresses, it may show pain in the throat, but the sore throat is still not a specific symptom, so it is easily confused with sore throat caused by pharyngitis, and it is not easy to attract people’s attention. In the later stages, the disease often affects the laryngeal cavity and may manifest as hoarseness; in case of lymph node metastasis in the neck, a neck mass may appear. The later symptoms are easily noticed, but the disease is often at an advanced stage and is very difficult to treat. Nevertheless, patients with pharyngeal discomfort should not be overly concerned until the diagnosis is confirmed. Because chronic pharyngitis is relatively common among middle-aged and elderly female patients, while hypopharyngeal cancer is generally more common among men over 40 years old with a long history of smoking and drinking. A survey shows that the incidence ratio of hypopharyngeal cancer among men and women is 12.6:1. How to diagnose and treat hypopharyngeal cancer? ”Patients with chronic pharyngitis should strengthen their awareness of self-protection and go to the otorhinolaryngology department of hospitals regularly for specialized medical checkups. Middle-aged and elderly men with a long history of smoking and drinking should pay close attention to the changes of symptoms in the throat. Once the feeling of obstruction in the throat, the feeling of sticking in food or the pain in the throat worsens significantly, they should go to the otolaryngology department of the hospital in time. If the specialist recommends further fiberoptic laryngoscopy or rigid tube laryngoscopy (a picture can be taken to detect tumors), and do not blindly take medication for chronic pharyngitis, but not for specialist examination. In addition, for patients with recurrent episodes of pharyngeal obstruction and mucus in eating, once hoarseness or neck mass appears, they need to pay extra attention and come to the hospital early.” The comprehensive treatment mode of surgery plus radiotherapy is the best choice for hypopharyngeal cancer, and the complete removal of tumor by surgery is the key to improve the efficacy. Although hypopharyngeal cancer is more malignant, as long as the tumor is detected early and the tumor is limited at this time, surgery can still achieve better results. As mentioned above, the hypopharynx is closely related to the laryngeal cavity, and advanced hypopharyngeal cancer will invade the laryngeal cavity, which will affect the breathing and vocal functions of the larynx to varying degrees after surgery to remove the tumor. On the contrary, if the disease can be detected early, the tumor is limited to the hypopharynx and does not invade the laryngeal cavity, then the function of the laryngeal cavity can be preserved after surgery; some patients can even not undergo tracheotomy, which greatly improves the quality of life of patients. Due to the complexity of the tumor site, the method of resection and shaping is very critical. Different tumor sites adopt different surgical approaches and different repair methods. Commonly used repair materials include: sternocleidomastoid muscle flap, sternocleidomastoid flap, free tissue, artificial materials, etc. The principle of hypopharyngeal cancer treatment is to completely remove the tumor before considering the preservation of function; preoperative induction chemotherapy and postoperative supplemental radiotherapy are feasible for patients with conditions.