Treatment for Throat Cancer

MD Anderson takes special care to customize your throat cancer treatment. Our goal is to maximize the chance of cure while maintaining your quality of life.

Because the throat plays a critical role in speaking, breathing and swallowing, treatment for throat cancer often focuses on preserving these functions along with eliminating the cancer. To achieve these goals, treatment plans are customized to each individual patient.  

Your treatment is provided by a team of health care professionals, led by a multidisciplinary group of experts. These include a medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, head and neck surgeon, and plastic surgeon. 

Depending on the type of throat cancer and how far it has spread, you may be treated with one or more therapies.

Throat cancer surgery

Surgery is a common treatment for most throat cancers, including oropharyngeal cancer, hypopharyngeal cancer and laryngeal cancer. It is rarely used for nasopharyngeal cancer. 

The exact procedure depends on where the cancer develops.

For the most common throat cancer, oropharyngeal cancer, surgery is often used in the early stages of the disease. In recent years, surgical techniques and approaches for oropharyngeal cancer have gotten less invasive. This has resulted in much shorter recovery times. 

The surgeries for oropharyngeal cancer include:

• Transoral robotic surgery: This is the most common surgery for oropharyngeal cancer. It is a minimally invasive surgery that allows doctors to completely remove a tumor with robotic tools. These specialized instruments and advanced three-dimensional imaging have made it possible to perform complex procedures in small areas such as the oropharynx without the need for large incisions in the mouth and jaw area.
  
• Transoral laser microsurgery: This procedure lets surgeons reach tumors in tight locations that were previously not accessible. Surgeons remove these tumors using a flexible, hollow-core fiber that transmits CO2 laser energy. Damage to nearby tissue is minimal.
  

Visit the pages for hypopharyngeal cancer, laryngeal cancer, and nasopharyngeal cancer for information on surgeries for those diseases.

Throat cancer chemotherapy

Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells, control their growth or relieve disease-related symptoms. Chemotherapy may involve a single drug or a combination of two or more drugs, depending on the type of cancer and how fast it is growing.

Chemotherapy may be used to shrink a throat tumor before surgery or kill lingering cancer cells after surgery and/or radiation treatment. A combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy may be used as a primary treatment for patients with larger tumors or those who cannot tolerate surgery.

Learn more about chemotherapy 

Throat cancer immunotherapy

Cancer is a complex disease that can evade the immune system. Immunotherapy improves the immune system’s ability to recognize and eliminate cancer. 

At this time only immune checkpoint inhibitors are approved to treat throat cancers. These drugs stop the immune system from turning off before cancer is completely eliminated. 

Learn more about immunotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors. 

Throat cancer targeted therapy

Targeted therapy drugs are designed to stop or slow the growth or spread of cancer. This happens on a cellular level. Cancer cells need specific molecules (often in the form of proteins) to survive, multiply and spread. These molecules are usually made by the genes that cause cancer, as well as the cells themselves. Targeted therapies are designed to interfere with, or target, these molecules or the cancer-causing genes that create them. 

Learn more about targeted therapy.

Throat cancer radiation therapy

Radiation therapy uses focused powerful beams of energy, usually in the form of photons, to destroy cancer cells. 

Learn more about radiation therapy.

The types of radiation therapy used to treat throat cancer include:

• Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT): This treatment focuses multiple radiation beams of different intensities directly on the tumor for the highest possible dose. One type of IMRT is Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), which uses a rotating treatment machine to deliver radiation at multiple angles. 
  
• Proton therapy: Proton therapy is similar to standard radiation therapy, but it uses a different type of particle that may allow doctors to reduce the radiation dose and limit damage to healthy nearby tissue. Learn more about proton therapy. 
  
• MR LINAC radiotherapy: This approach uses a specialized device to adjust treatment on a daily basis. These adjustments can reduce side effects and effectively treat changing tumors.
  
• Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT): SBRT, also known as stereotactic ablative radiotherapy and stereotactic ablative body radiation, precisely targets tumors with very high doses of radiation. SBRT achieves this by using several radiation beams of various intensities aimed at the tumor from different angles. Learn more about SBRT.
  

Throat cancer clinical trials

As one of the world’s premier cancer centers, MD Anderson develops and participates in clinical trials of new therapies for throat cancer. Sometimes they are your best option for treatment. They can also help researchers learn how to treat cancer more effectively and improve the future of cancer care. 

Learn more about clinical trials.

Specialized care for throat cancer patients

Throat cancer and its treatments can impact a person’s ability to eat, drink and speak, as well as their appearance. MD Anderson offers therapies and services to help throat cancer patients adjust to and overcome these challenges as much as possible.

Speech therapy: MD Anderson speech pathologists and audiologists offer patients the most advanced techniques for restoring speech after throat cancer and its treatment.

Swallowing therapy: Experts in MD Anderson’s Speech Pathology and Audiology Section are dedicated to evaluating and treating patients who have difficulty eating, drinking and swallowing after treatment. MD Anderson's swallowing service is one of the leaders in this field and serves as a model for the management of patients treated for throat cancers.

Reconstructive surgery: Throat cancer treatment can impact a patient’s appearance. MD Anderson is home to renowned reconstructive surgeons who can perform procedures to help restore appearance. 

Dental care: The teeth and jaw of throat cancer patients can be damaged by the disease and its treatments. MD Anderson dentists specialize in designing implants and performing procedures to help throat cancer patients restore appearance and function. 

Survivorship: MD Anderson has a survivorship clinic dedicated to the needs of head and neck cancer patients.

Regular follow-up and screenings are vital due to the high risk of throat cancer returning to the throat or other areas in the head and neck region. Patients need to see their doctors every three to six months for the first two years after treatment, since most cancers that recur, or come back, do so within that time. 

Throat cancer patients are also strongly urged not to smoke or drink alcohol during and after treatment. Drinking and smoking can make treatments less successful and worsen side effects during treatment. They can also greatly increase the chance of the cancer returning.