Treatments for Ear Cancer

There are several viable options for someone diagnosed with cancer of the ear. Cancer of the ear is a relatively rare cancer, but several treatments have proved successful in battling the disease.

Surgery

• If the cancerous growth hasn't spread beyond the area of the ear, surgery likely is the best option. Ear cancer surgery involves cutting into the ear and removing the tumor with a scalpel. If successful, surgery provides a complete cure to the ear cancer. Even if only partially successful, surgery can result in the removal of a major portion of the cancer, easing your ear cancer symptoms and leaving less to be dealt with through other treatments.

Radiation

• Radiation therapy can be a viable option for those whose ear cancer hasn't spread beyond the ear. During this treatment, high-energy rays are concentrated on the ear, killing the cancer cells there. There are two types of treatment: internal and external. External radiation therapy involves beaming the radiation through the ear from the outside while internal radiation therapy requires inserting a radioactive device into the ear near the cancerous growth and allowing the radiation to kill the cancer cells.

Chemotherapy

• Chemotherapy is defined as the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. The drugs destroy any rapidly proliferating cells in your body. For this reason, chemotherapy can exact a physical toll on the patient. It might be used as a precursor to radiation therapy, killing cancer cells throughout the body before the radiation deals with a specific area. In the case of ear cancer, unless the cancer has spread, chemotherapy likely won't be much of an option. But if the cancer has metastasized, surgery or radiation might be useful in conjunction with chemotherapy.