By Ron Winslow
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Chairman and Chief Executive James
Dimon is one of about 50,000 people in the U.S. who will be
diagnosed with head and neck cancer this year.
Mr. Dimon was recently diagnosed with throat cancer, which is
considered a subset of the broader category of head and neck
cancer. Throat cancer is a general term that describes tumors that
occur at the base of the tongue, the tonsils, the wall of the
throat or slightly lower in the throat, said Randall S. Weber,
professor and chairman off the department of head and neck surgery
at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston.
The most common site is the base of the tongue or tonsil, he
said.
Smoking history had most commonly been linked to the cancer, but
with the decline in smoking among the U.S. population, exposure to
the human papilloma virus is now the most common cause of the
disease, Dr. Weber said.
For nonsmoking patients whose tumors test negative for HPV, the
cancer could arise from yet little understood environmental or
genetic causes, he said.
Dr. Weber said he isn't familiar with any details of Mr. Dimon's
case and his comments reflect general knowledge of the disease.
Prognosis depends somewhat on the stage of the disease, he said,
and is worse for patients with a significant smoking history. "For
a person with throat cancer related to HPV with a minimal smoking
history, the cure rate is 85% to 90," he said.
Treatment typically involves either surgery to remove the tumor,
radiation or chemotherapy or some combination of the approaches.
Surgery can result at least for a while in problems speaking or
swallowing, so radiation and chemotherapy are often preferred
approaches. Radiation and chemo or radiation alone generally
provide "good disease control without removal of a lot of important
and functional tissues," Dr. Weber said.
"The outcome for the tumors we're seeing today, the functional
outcomes following treatment, is very good and the cure rate is
very good," Dr. Weber said.
Write to Ron Winslow at ron.winslow@wsj.com
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