Laryngeal cancer – cancer of the “real” man

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Mature age, cigarette in the mouth, hard croaky voice. The man who didn’t pour the collar. This is how a good detective story could start. Unfortunately, reality is often sadder than literary fiction. This short description is also a description of a typical patient with laryngeal cancer, one of the ten most frequently diagnosed cancers in men in Poland.

1. Laryngeal cancer is most often detected in people over 45 years of age
2. Laryngeal cancer is diagnosed more than six times more often in men than in women
3. The most common causes of laryngeal cancer are cigarette smoking, alcohol abuse and chronic laryngitis
4. More information can be found on the Onet homepage

Laryngeal cancer – six times more men than women suffer from cancer

The title phrase “cancer of a real man” is undoubtedly true not because of the characteristics of a typical patient, but because of the significant disproportion in the incidence of the disease between women and men. Laryngeal cancer is diagnosed more than six times more often in men than in women. Currently, over 2 people suffer from this cancer in Poland every year. gentlemen.

– The large number of patients is largely due to the spread of tobacco smoking in our country. Laryngeal cancer is a typical tobacco-dependent cancer. The smoker’s larynx has been bombarded by mutagens in tobacco smoke for decades, says Prof. Maciej Giefing, head of the Department of Cancer Genetics at the Institute of Human Genetics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poznań (IGC PAN). – The resemblance to bombing is not accidental here, as these compounds cause numerous damage to the genetic material in the cells that make up the larynx. The entire layer of epithelial cells is genetically damaged, as if after a carpet raid.

The expert adds: – The damage, although it is constantly repaired, cannot be fully removed, which results in its accumulation with the age of the smoker. This process can significantly speed up in people who additionally abuse strong alcohols. Usually, around the sixth decade of life, there is so much damage that one day normal cells become cancer cells, their uncontrolled division occurs and a neoplastic tumor arises – explains Prof. Maciej Giefing.

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– It is only after the tumor has reached a significant size that the patient begins to experience symptoms such as shortness of breath or problems with swallowing. Earlier symptoms are non-specific, such as a hoarse voice that is rarely associated with cancer. Hence, the vast majority of patients ignore such symptoms and report to the doctor too late. Then, sparing surgery that preserves the function of the larynx is no longer possible. A total laryngectomy is performed, i.e. the entire larynx is removed, followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This procedure drastically reduces the patient’s quality of life and prevents proper swallowing and speaking. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of such treatment is not optimistic. Only every second patient will survive the next five years, which is the period adopted in oncology as a measure of cure – adds prof. Giefing.

Treatment of laryngeal cancer – immunotherapy

Some hope for the improvement of this pessimistic picture is offered by new therapies as well as diagnostic methods based on scientific achievements, namely cancer genetics. We are talking about immunotherapy, which is now available for patients with laryngeal cancer. It is a method of treatment based on stimulating the cells of the patient’s immune system to increase their activity against cancer cells.

The therapy has fewer side effects than previous chemotherapy because the patient is given a drug that only unblocks some dormant functions of his own immune system. It would also undoubtedly be of great importance to improve the diagnosis of this group of neoplasms. Research on innovative diagnostic methods is carried out at the Institute of Human Genetics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poznań.

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– Our goal is to develop a technology that allows you to predict the risk of recurrence in a patient with high accuracy by testing a blood sample. It is known that there are short fragments of genetic material in the blood from cancer cells. So the tumor reveals its presence in a way. If we learn to distinguish fragments from healthy cells from those from cancer cells, we will be able to diagnose a newly emerging tumor at an early stage of development, which will significantly increase the chances of a patient being cured, explains Prof. Małgorzata Jarmuż-Szymczak from the Department of Cancer Genetics IGC PAN.

Scientists plan to launch their innovative product on the market in the next few years.

Also read:

1. More and more Polish women die of breast cancer. Money from the government is not helping
2. Inflammation of the intestines – causes, symptoms
3. Poland: more and more malignant tumors

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