Question

Is a patient's sexual history relevant when diagnosing a cancer in a lymph node of the neck? Why or why not?

Answer 1

lymph node enlargment is a common presentation of some cancer in the head and neck regions inluding nasopharyngeal cancer , tongue cancer , tonsil cancer ,salivary gland cancer , thyroid cancer, laryngeal cancer , hypopharyngeal cancer .....

lymph node cancer is meatastasis of cancer cells from above mentioned primary sites of cancer, commonly squamous cell cancer.

suspect cancer if a patient presented with painless swelling of lymph node , hard consistency , fixed to underlying tissues , increasing size , assosiated fatigue , weight loss ,cough, nose block , bleeding ....

sexual history is relevant in some of the head and neck cancer like , cancer tongue , cancer tonsil ,nasopharyngeal cancer. human papilloma virus (HPV) is the cause for cervical cancer and its strain HPV-16 is an established cause of oropharyngeal cancer . most common route for this HPV infection is through unsafe sexual practice like oral sex and multiple sexual partners.

so any patient present with swollen lypmhnodes and other oral symptoms , it is a must to include sexual history also and do FNAC of lymph nodes and BIOPSY of oral lesion. if any suspected cancer tissue present in oral lesion , we have to trace out the sourse of this HPV infection (contact tracing ) and do appropriate measures like vaccination and early diagnosis and treatment in that person also.

so it is better to take HPV vaccine for both boys and girls at the age of 11 or 12 or before they exposed to sexual contact , inorder to prevent these deadly cancer in future , and give safe sexual education also.