What is throat cancer?

  Laryngeal cancer is a malignant tumor occurring in the larynx and ranks third among malignant tumors of the otorhinolaryngology.  The incidence rate of laryngeal cancer is higher in the north of China, and is higher in urban than rural areas, and higher in heavy industrial cities with heavy air pollution than in light industrial cities with light pollution. However, the cause of its incidence is not very clear and may be due to a combination of factors. Such as long-term smoking, alcoholism, air pollution, long-term exposure to asbestos, mustard gas, nickel, radium, uranium and radon, virus infection, sex hormone stimulation, lack of certain trace elements, malignant transformation of benign tumors, etc. are all related to the occurrence of laryngeal cancer.  After suffering from laryngeal cancer, patients may show hoarseness, dyspnea, cough, difficulty in swallowing and cervical lymph node metastasis, and some patients may have foreign body sensation in the throat, bad breath and a small amount of coughing blood. If the tumor occurs in the vocal cord, the first symptom is hoarseness and other voice changes in the early stage, and then it will develop into coarse voice, hoarseness or even loss of voice; tumors in other parts may also show voice changes after involving the vocal cord, vocal folds or nerves. With the increase of tumor or development of the disease, breathing difficulty, swallowing difficulty, frequent cough, foreign body feeling in the throat or other uncomfortable symptoms may appear.