Soft Palate Cancer

Treatment for soft palate cancer often includes surgery followed by radiation, chemotherapy or both. Your healthcare team considers many factors when creating a treatment plan. These might include the cancer’s location and how fast it’s growing. The team also may look at whether the cancer has spread to other parts of your body and the results of tests on the cancer cells. Your care team also considers your age and your overall health.

Surgery to remove the cancer

During surgery for soft palate cancer, the surgeon removes the cancer and some of the healthy tissue around it. This ensures that all the cancer cells are removed.

Sometimes surgery causes trouble with speaking and swallowing. Physical therapy and other rehabilitation services can help you cope with these changes.

Surgery to remove lymph nodes in the neck

When soft palate cancer spreads, it often goes to the lymph nodes in the neck first. If there are signs that the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, you might need surgery to remove some lymph nodes, called a neck dissection. Even if there are no signs of cancer in the lymph nodes, you may have some of them removed as a precaution. Removing the lymph nodes removes the cancer and helps your healthcare team decide if you need other treatments.

To get to the lymph nodes, the surgeon makes a cut in the neck and removes the lymph nodes through the opening. The lymph nodes are tested for cancer. If cancer is found in the lymph nodes, other treatment might be needed to kill any cancer cells that are left. Options might include radiation or radiation combined with chemotherapy.

Sometimes it’s possible to remove only a few lymph nodes for testing. This is called a sentinel node biopsy. It involves removing the lymph nodes to which cancer is most likely to spread. The lymph nodes are tested for cancer. If there’s no cancer detected, it’s likely that the cancer hasn’t spread. Sentinel node biopsy isn’t an option for everyone with soft palate cancer. It’s only used in certain situations.

Reconstructive surgery

Reconstructive surgery may be used for people who had parts of their face, jaw or neck taken out during surgery. Healthy bone or tissue may be taken from other parts of the body and used to fill gaps. This tissue can replace part of the lip, tongue, palate or jaw, face, throat, or skin. Reconstructive surgery is sometimes done at the same time as surgery to remove the cancer. This may depend on the size and location of the cancer.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy uses powerful energy beams to kill cancer cells. The energy can come from X-rays, protons or other sources. During radiation therapy, a machine directs beams of energy to specific points on the body to kill the cancer cells.

Radiation might be used after surgery to kill any cancer cells that remain. Sometimes radiation is done at the same time as chemotherapy. If you can’t have surgery or don’t want surgery, radiation might be used instead.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy uses strong medicines to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy may be used after surgery to kill any remaining cells. Sometimes chemotherapy is done at the same time as radiation therapy because it makes the radiation work better.

Targeted therapy

Targeted therapy uses medicines that attack specific chemicals in the cancer cells. By blocking these chemicals, targeted treatments can cause cancer cells to die. Targeted therapy is used to treat soft palate cancer that spreads to other parts of the body or comes back after treatment.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a treatment with medicine that helps your body’s immune system kill cancer cells. Your immune system fights off diseases by attacking germs and other cells that shouldn’t be in your body. Cancer cells survive by hiding from the immune system. Immunotherapy helps the immune system cells find and kill the cancer cells. Immunotherapy might be used when the cancer spreads to other parts of the body and other treatments haven’t helped.

Therapy to help with recovery

Treatment for advanced soft palate cancer can impact your ability to speak and eat. Working with a skilled rehabilitation team can help you cope with changes that result from cancer treatment.