Head & Neck Cancer Patient & Family

09/06/2026

💉 Screening and Immunisation: Teen vaccine rates tumble, risking cancer elimination.
Source: Cancer Council.

As an HPV-related throat cancer survivor, I urge you, in whatever way you can, to ensure the young people in your life get the HPV Vaccine. For First Nations young people and other young people who may experience higher rates of school absenteeism, we need additional strategies for promoting access to the HPV vaccine.

“Public health experts are concerned that a sharp decline in HPV vaccination coverage among Australian teenagers could undermine decades of progress in preventing cervical cancer. Vaccination rates have fallen well below the national target of 90 per cent, with particularly low uptake among Indigenous adolescents, while cervical screening participation has also dropped, leaving many people overdue for testing. Researchers say the decline is being driven by a combination of pandemic-related disruptions, access barriers, school absenteeism, reduced public health resources and lower awareness of catch-up vaccination options.

While Australia remains a global leader in cervical cancer prevention, experts warn stronger investment in immunisation and screening programs is urgently needed to keep the country on track to become the first in the world to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035.”

The Age, 9/06/2026, Page 7; The Sydney Morning Herald, 9/06/2026, Page 16.

08/06/2026

Managing the long-term and late effects of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer

Emma Hallam Consultant therapeutic radiographer, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Nottingham, England

Sara Faithfull Adjunct professor in radiation therapy, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Dublin, Republic of Ireland

Managing the long-term and late effects of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer

07/06/2026

Dental Care Before Cancer Chemotherapy 🦷🎗️

Posted on LinkedIn by Ryan S Lee, Chief Dental Officer, Lt. Colonel, USAR, Greater Boston.

This post was inspired by my recent conversation with Dr. Ryan S. Lee, DDS, MPH, MHA.

One of the most important—but often overlooked—steps before cancer treatment is a comprehensive dental evaluation.

Why? Because untreated oral disease can become a serious source of infection during chemotherapy, leading to pain, hospitalization, treatment delays, and potentially life-threatening complications.

🔹 Before chemotherapy, patients should receive:
• Comprehensive dental examination and radiographs
• Treatment of active infections, abscesses, and symptomatic teeth
• Periodontal evaluation and management
• Caries control and oral hygiene instruction
• Patient education regarding mucositis and oral complications

🔹 What should be extracted?
Current evidence suggests eliminating acute infection foci (pain, swelling, purulence, recent symptoms), while many chronic asymptomatic lesions may be monitored and treated after cancer therapy to avoid delaying treatment.

🔹 Mucositis Prevention
• Soft toothbrush and meticulous oral hygiene
• Saline or baking soda rinses
• Cryotherapy (ice chips) during selected chemotherapy infusions
• Photobiomodulation when available
• Benzydamine mouthwash in appropriate cases

🔹 Latest Research
The 2025 MASCC/ISOO guidelines emphasize risk-based dental assessment before chemotherapy, stem cell transplantation, and CAR T-cell therapy. Recent studies also demonstrate that streamlined dental screening protocols can identify infection sources without delaying cancer treatment.

💡 Clinical Pearl: The best time to prevent oral complications of chemotherapy is before chemotherapy begins. Early dental intervention protects both oral and systemic health.

Selected References
• Zadik et al. Support Care Cancer. 2025.
• Espada-Salgado et al. Med Oral Patol Oral Cir Bucal. 2026.
• NCCN Head & Neck Cancer Guidelines. 2026.
• Järvinen et al. Oral Diseases. 2026.
• Spijkervet et al. Oral Diseases. 2021.

07/06/2026

🦷 🪥 In the first years of recovery from throat cancer, treated with radiation and chemotherapy, my general dentist Dr Nguyen in Glebe Sydney was immensely supportive. He actively sought out information about the dental challenges Head and Neck Cancer patients face after extensive radiation, including to the jaw area. He agreed to speak on the phone to my ENT Surgeon, Richard Gallagher about my dental issues. It gave me so much relief from anxiety that they had spoken to each other.

🦷 Radiation Therapy leads to dry mouth as a side effect and this is dangerous for our teeth. Saliva comes back for most patients but it can take quite a long time and may be of a lesser quality. Extractions are to be avoided after Radiation Therapy because there is a risk of bone death in the jaw caused by the trauma of extraction to the radiated bone. So many Head and Neck Cancer patients have problematic teeth extracted prior to Radiation Therapy. In a nutshell, we face dental issues long term or for life.

🦷 I currently live in Adelaide and I have a new group of dental practitioners who monitor and treat my teeth. I got great advice from Special Needs Dentist Sharon Liberali in Adelaide. I see a Periodontist, a General Dentist and a Dental Hygienist in Adelaide and they all share information.

🦷 I am acutely aware that many survivors of Head and Neck Cancers struggle to afford private dentistry. Reliance on the public dental system is often much more challenging.

Teeth and Mouth Care: https://www.headandneckcancer.org.au/health-wellbeing/oral-health/

05/06/2026

The newly released KPMG review confirms what patients and clinicians have been saying for years: access to facial prosthetics after Head and Neck Cancer surgery is inequitable and too often determined by postcode and personal finances.

Head and Neck Cancer Australia is calling for urgent government action to ensure people affected by life-altering facial disfigurement can access the survivorship care they need.

Read the media release:

Media Release - 5 June 2026

04/06/2026

Unlike some other cancers, there is no national screening program for Head and Neck Cancer. That’s why knowing the signs and acting early can make all the difference. Share this with your networks and let them know that any symptom which lasts more than three weeks must be checked by your GP or dentist.

01/06/2026

Immunotherapy injection shrinks tumours in patients with recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer.

Immunotherapy injection shrinks tumours in patients with recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer

31/05/2026

☢️❤️A tribute to my partner Melissa from 1 June 2013.
“Melissa unpacks the juicer with 450 trillion attachments. There is nothing we won't be able to do with celery.”

Exactly 13 years ago today Melissa unpacked the juicer she had bought so she could blend everything I needed to eat so I could swallow it.

I received 33 sessions of & weekly for oropharyngeal cancer (tonsils, back of tongue, side of throat).

Loss of speech and swallowing capacity are among the normal side effects.

☢️ 🎯 Targeting Cancer - Julie’s Story - Side Effects https://youtu.be/DG_DqlxF-2k

🏆 I pay tribute today to Melissa and all the partners, or other family or friend carers, who care for us at home as we manage this brutal but life-saving treatment.

It’s my understanding that having a partner to care for you increases the survival rate for Head and Neck Cancer patients. All my treatment and recovery was as an outpatient.

I managed to continue swallowing blended and liquid food - without the need for a Peg Tube into my stomach or a nasogastric tube down my nose - which really mattered to me at the time. I am grateful to my Radiation Oncologist for allowing me to continue trying to maintain enough weight for safety by swallowing, very slowly, enough liquid food. You are weighed daily in the latter weeks of treatment and must not go below a certain weight.

Thank you to my dietician and speech pathologist who monitored me so closely.

Thank you to all the partners of cancer patients who are so critical to our survival and recovery! ❤️‍🩹

Head and Neck Cancer Australia

30/05/2026

“For clinicians, the 6 weeks after head and neck cancer surgery can feel like a race. For patients, those same weeks can feel endless.

“You're recovering from major surgery. Maybe relearning how to swallow. Adjusting to a feeding tube. Processing a diagnosis that has changed everything. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, you're supposed to coordinate starting radiation.

“Postoperative radiation needs to start within 6 weeks of surgery. That's not arbitrary — it's backed by survival data.

“A new study of 2,700+ Veterans showed:
✅ Radiation within 6 weeks → 70% 3-year survival
❌ Delayed radiation → 62% 3-year survival

“The delays? Sometimes they're medical. But they commonly happened to patients navigating the system alone. To patients whose surgery and radiation were at different facilities, the odds of delay increased by nearly 48%.

“This is why survivorship care isn't just about what happens in the treatment room. It's about what happens in between.

“This research is the work of Dr. Jessica Maxwell, who works to understand and address those gaps for Veterans with head and neck cancer. I'm happy to contribute to this work.

“Whether you're a clinician or a patient, what barriers have you encountered in getting timely care after surgery?” Prof Marci Lee Nilsen, University of Pittsburgh.

Objective Initiation of postoperative radiation therapy (PORT) within 6 weeks of surgery for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guideline...