What is Head and Neck Cancer and why is it different?
Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) is not just one type of cancer. It includes more than 10 different cancers which can affect a person’s mouth, tongue, throat, salivary glands, skin or voice box.
The treatment for HNC can be brutal as it affects a person’s identity unlike any other cancer. It can leave a person unable to speak, with devastating facial disfigurements and take away basic abilities that we take for granted like eating, breathing, speaking, drinking and swallowing.
On the eve of Head and Neck Cancer Day – Wednesday, 27 July – let’s look at the facts:
- There has been a 34 per cent increase in Head and Neck Cancer in the last 10 years
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are disproportionately impacted with a 30 per cent gap in survival rates compared to non-Indigenous Australians
- 70 per cent of tonsil and base tongue cancer are caused by the human papillomavirus
- There has been a 385 per cent increase in tongue cancer for otherwise healthy young women
- Men are three times more likely than women to be diagnosed
Head and Neck Cancer Australia is the only Australian charity dedicated to providing education and support to people living with HNC. It is a unique collaboration of patients, family members, carers and clinicians working to educate, support and reduce the cancer burden in some of the most disenfranchised cancer patients.