In Almost 100% of Cases, Lip Cancer Treatment in the First Stage Leads to Complete Recovery

"Herpes appears suddenly, with pain, and as a rule, this bubble formation, which eventually dries up, is covered with a crust, and within a few days disappears. Tumours that are unlike herpes are ulcerations or indurations which exist for a long time. As a rule, they are painless and can exist for quite a long time, even without growth", says Zvi Bernstein.

The main methods of treatment for lip cancer are radiation therapy and surgery. Taking into consideration the possible defects and deformations, the decision to have surgery is taken in a very cautious way. But if a lesion is small and there is no spread to regional lymph nodes, surgical removal may be the primary and only treatment.

"During surgery, we examine the cut, and if we achieve a healthy edge at the first stage of the tumour, we can confine ourselves to sparing a resection, which sometimes does not even require a plastic replacement of the defects," says Zvi Bernstein.

In more advanced stages, due to anatomy, blood supply and lymphatic drainage of the tumour lips provide a sufficiently large number of metastases in the lymph nodes of the neck. The treatment plan in such cases is much more complicated. Irradiation of lymph nodes or surgery may impair many functions like speech, salivation, and swallowing. Therefore, the decision on the tactics of the treatment is received at a consultation with the involvement of otolaryngologists and even speech therapists. The peculiarity of this type of cancer, as well as other tumours of the head and neck is that there are frequent relapses, which force for a more radical and difficult treatment. Survival in these cases is reduced to 55%.

Positron emission tomography (PET-CT) in the treatment of lip cancer plays a key role in the staging process and helps to monitor the results of treatment and the possible resumption of the disease.