What Is It? -

In broad terms, I have a neck and head cancer. Don't ask me why this broad category exists, but there are cancer doctors, oncologists if you will, that specialize in neck and head cancers.

To be more specific, I have what is generally called an oral cancer. Precisely, I had cancer on my left tonsil. I say had, because I no longer have that tonsil or the primary tumor.

Cancers are named by the cells that have the tumor. That's my lay understanding, and this was initially confusing. I have squamous cell carcinoma. I thought squamous cell was the type of bug or disease, like polio or tetanus. Now I know we all have squamous cells. They are called flat cells and they line the mouth and throat and lots of other places in the body. They are also skin cells. When some of these cells go wacky and start growing wildly, you have a carcinoma, a cancerous tumor. Hence.....squamous cell carcinoma.

Cancers are measured by size and if they have spread. Sizes are T-1 to T-4 and movement is referenced by Stage 1 to Stage 4. My cancer was small, about one centimeter by one and a half centimeters. They called it a T-1 and that's good. But my cancer had moved by the time we found it and had been captured in at least four lymph nodes on the left side of my neck. That made it a Stage 3 or 4 cancer and that's not good.

When pieces of the primary source break off and start to move, that's called metastasis. For some reason I can't pronounce that word, and have equal difficulty spelling it, but metastasis is not good. The cancer cells seek to attack vital organs in the body. The body's first line of defense are the lymph nodes. For some sort of still unclear reason, this was important to me. I had always heard of cancers SPREADING to the lymph nodes, and that was usually followed by some dire predicted consequences. Now my understanding is these rogue cancer cells are CAPTURED by the lymph nodes and these gland-like things are protecting me. Still not good, but better than having cancer in my lungs or somewhere else to the south, which apparently could be expected if the lymph nodes weren't on the job.

And lastly, my cancer is viral, or virus caused. Testing of the removed tumor showed it was HPV positive. HPV is the human papilloma virus. Many more woman then men are familiar with this term because this is the virus that has been linked to cervical cancer. This is the virus that led to the controversial vaccine for young females. I remember those discussions and the medical recommendations, but admit I didn't pay much attention.

It turns out that cervical cancer is also squamous cell carcinoma. Recent research has been looking for a similar viral connection in some oral cancers. They found it in my case, and 1) that was good news (more on that later), and 2) I'm getting treatment that more resembles the protocol for cervical cancer patients that oral cancer patients.


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How do you know you have cancer?