Head-Neck Cancers Sixth Commonest Cancers Worldwide — Robotic Surgeon

A head, neck, and thyroid surgeon at the University Hospitals of Leicester, Dr Oladejo Olaleye, has disclosed that head-neck cancers are the sixth most common cancers worldwide.

Olaleye disclosed this in a chat on Channels Television’s programme Amazing Africans.

“Head-neck cancers are the sixth commonest cancers in the world. It’s a term that encompasses any area in the head and neck.

“Cancers can occur in the mouth, lips, gums, cheeks,  roof of the mouth, back of the mouth, and tonsils. It can affect the voice box, the swallowing pipe, and there can be lumps in the neck, thyroid glands, salivary glands, the sinuses, and the nose—any of the spaces in the head and neck area can have cancer.”

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Olaleye noted that understanding the risk factors and the habits or behaviours that predispose people to cancers is key in helping to curb the menace.

“It’s important to understand what the risk factors are. What predisposes people to cancer? Sometimes, cancer can happen just because of your genetics; you might have a family history of cancer; particularly something like a thyroid cancer that can run in families.

He listed cigarette smoking or tobacco chewing as the number one cause of throat cancers.

Other factors include excessive consumption of alcohol or spirits and Human Papillomavirus (HPV), among others.

The neck, head, and thyroid surgeon explained that over the last decade, there had been an increase in cancers of the tonsils, back of the tongue, and throat caused by HPV.

He said that the HPV vaccine was now also being given to boys in the UK to help curb the virus.

“We know that high-risk HPV causes cancer of the cervix in women. In the last decade or so, we’ve seen an increase in cancers of the throat caused by the same virus (HPV) that causes cancer of the cervix in women.

“We are seeing more cancers of the tonsils and cancers of the back of the tongue, particularly in men, and they don’t necessarily smoke or drink. It’s sexually transmitted, so awareness is an important part of it, but there is also a vaccine.

“It’s because of the spike in throat cancers from the virus that we’ve started giving boys the vaccine as well. Previously, it was only girls who were getting the HPV vaccine,” Olaleye said.

He further explained that genetics and behavioural factors were not the only causative factors of cancers, as certain sexual behaviours also predispose people to cancers.

He, therefore, called for awareness of sexual behaviours, as prevention and early detection save lives.

Watch the full chat below on the use of robots to treat the cancers, as well as Dr. Olaleye’s journey from the streets of Surulere in Lagos, Nigeria, to Leicester in the United Kingdom.

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