In the modern society, laryngeal cancer is seriously threatening people’s health. Due to lack of understanding of laryngeal cancer , patients are often detected in late stage. The key to prevent laryngeal cancer is to know about laryngeal cancer symptoms. Here, experts from Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou are giving us an introduction of laryngeal cancer symptoms.

According to the location of the cancer, laryngeal cancer can be classified into three types. They are supraglottis laryngeal cancer, which refers to cancer that starts in the area above the vocal cord; glottis laryngeal cancer, which refers to cancer that originates in the vocal cord; and subglottis laryngeal cancer, which starts in the area between the subglottis and inferior border of cricoid cartilage.

Symptoms of laryngeal cancer:

1. Persistent hoarseness, foreign body sensation or swallowing pain in the throat.

The most common symptom of laryngeal cancer is hoarseness. If abnormal hoarseness occurs and rsustains for more than three weeks without signs of disappearing, one should turn to the ENT specialists for laryngoscopy thoroughly and take treatment timely. As most laryngeal cancers start in the vocal cord, even very small vocal cord tumors can cause abnormal vibration of the vocal cord and result in hoarseness. Foreign body sensation and swallowing pain in the throat are early symptoms of supraglottis laryngeal cancer. Both doctors and patients should not neglect the symptoms even if they are not obvious. Otherwise, diagnosis and treatment will be delayed. Moreover, glottis laryngeal cancer can also cause foreign body sensation and swallowing pain when it reaches mid-late stage.

2. Internal ear pain

When laryngeal cancer develops to certain degrees and causes ulcer and severe inflammation in the throat, it can cause reflective pain of the nerves. Early vocal cord cancer usually does not cause reflective pain that often occurs among patients with mid-late stage supraglottis laryngeal cancer and with appearance of internal ear pain in the same side of the pharyngeal ulcer or inflammation.

3. Have blood in sputum and difficulty in breath

As there are a lot of new blood vessels in the tumor, patients often cough with bloody sputum. This symptom is often caused by supraglottis laryngeal cancer, subglottis laryngeal cancer and mid-late glottis laryngeal cancer. As the tumor severely deteriorates and enlarges in the primary location, it can directly affect breath by obstructing the air tube or causing breath difficulty by obstructing the secretion discharge in the air tube.