Michael Douglas’ Cancer, Tongue and Throat Similar says Cancer Specialist
Last week, Michael Douglas admitted that he did not have throat cancer but instead was suffering from tongue cancer.
The award winning-actor said he lied because surgery for tongue cancer can be ‘disfiguring,’ adding that he was promoting a film at the time and didn’t want preconceived notions floating around about his cancer.
Douglas had a cancerous tumor at the base of his tongue, although for nine months doctors kept telling him it was only an infection and giving him antibiotics. When he was finally properly diagnosed his doctor suggested he tell people he had throat cancer, not tongue cancer.
“If we do have to do surgery, it’s not going to be pretty,” Douglas claimed his doctor had cautioned. The surgery might have resulted in Douglas losing part of his jaw and tongue, so thedoctor suggested Douglas misrepresent his type of cancer, and the actor agreed.
Dr. Joycelyn Speight is a top cancer specialist with board certifications in Radiation Oncology and Palliative Care who explained to M&C the similarities of both cancers:
“Tongue and throat cancer are part of a contiguous area anatomically, and have similar risk factors for the development of cancer i.e. smoking, excess alcohol consumption. In general they are treated in much the same way; usually a combination of surgery radiation and chemotherapy depending on the stage. Outcomes are also very stage dependent, though all things being equal …stage for stage, there are some regions of the throat where outcomes are much worse due to higher stage at diagnosis, and higher likelihood of developing distant mets, where the disease spreads to other areas in the body away from the original site of the cancer . I can’t think of a particular reason why one would want to say they had throat cancer rather than tongue cancer.”
