Husband AND wife with this cancer?

I am panicked! My husband was diagnosise with stage 4 base of the tongue cancer in Feb. He is 16 days in to 38 rad tx. Finished 3 rounds of Chemo end of May. This discussion board has been a real source of information & motivation, in helping him with his cancer. NOW, I AM SCARED, I have HNC also. I have had a mild, off & on sore throat for several months & honestly, I have been trying to ignore it & busy helping my husband. Anyway, this past weekend I was looking in my throat & noticed that one tonsil is slightly enlarged. I am so worried! I have a doctors appointment made, but the waiting is killing me.

I am just wondering if anyone has heard of a husband & wife getting this type of cancer? I forgot to mention that my husband does not smoke or drink, & while they did not test him for hpv, his doctor has taken the assumed position that this is what caused it.

ANY info would be greatly appreciated. 

 

 

My husband has recently been diagnosed with stage 4 tonsil cancer. He too does not smoke (never has) or drink so his ENT was positive it was HPV related. When they did his tonsillectomy they ran an HPV test and it was negative.  We are totally baffled with this because he has none of the risk factors for this type of cancer.

He is now going through induction chemo therapy….started Monday….and then 7 weeks of radiation/chemo. I do know there are a few different ways to treat this type of cancer but I’m not sure if being HPV related changes the treatment or not.

I will keep you both in my prayers.

Tootz

I suspect you do not have tonsil cancer.  You no doubt have plenty of stress that is affecting you immunity.  Sore throats and tonsilitis of a single tonsil is a prevalent phenomenon. 

I have noticed in my oncology clinic that the throat cancer patients with stage 4b get induction chemo and the 4a patients seem to not get it.  I was 4a and did not get induction chemo.  Women get throat cancer at one fifth the rate that men get according to the studies I read last year.  It looks much like the reverse of the breast cancer statistics (but breast cancer is far more prevalent.) 

Hi Mcshelly,

Sorry to hear about your situation. It makes sense that the cancer would come from HPV since that is transmissable from one partner to another. I would still have an ENT test for it to be sure. From what I hear, HNC caused by HPV has a better cure rate. 

I had Stage IV tonsil cancer and found it the same way you describe in your post. My one tansil was slightly larger than the other. My wife had gone through Thyroid cancer a few years before my diagnosis. Not quite the same situation as yours but we thought that both of us having cancer in the same area of the body was pretty weird. I guess that since HPV can cause SCC and it can be passed from person-to-person, two close people having the same cancer isn't that out of the realm of possibility. BTW, I am 3.5 years out of treatment and am doing GREAT!!!! In better health and spirits than at any other time in my life. My wife has passed her 5 year mark so is considered to be cured. I hope the same for you and your husband.

Good Luck,

Joe 

I finished 33 radiation treatments in Feb for stage 1 SCC. I had 2 surgeries and 1 tonsil removed. I also had no risk factors hence 2 surgeries. the ENT decided it couldnt be cancer and that it probably was a throat wart so he just went in and lopped the mass off. then he had to go back and clean the margins when the biopsy came back. the mass was tested for HPV which came back negative (another surprise). My wife and I figured HPV was our answer to why but it wasnt. So like a lot of peopel who get this. It just happens and there is no telling why. Both of you hang in there. you will make it through this no matter what you find out.

Tom 

Please keep us posted on your situation. My docs also assume my tonsil SCC was from HPV as I am a non-smoker/non-drinker, but the biopsy was not tested for that so we'll never know for sure. Because HPV is an STD, my husband and I were both very anxious about what this might meant for our sex life. We haven't gotten great clarity on this even now, and we started asking in 8/08. But my rad doc basically said that if we have been monogamous for 30 years (in our particular case), whatever is in the joint system has been in the joint system some time and whatever we do from here on out is unlikely to change anything... so at least my having developed SCC doesn't meant I've necessarily introduced a new evil to both of us, it may just mean that I am part of the % of people whose bodies don't flush HPV out of their system. I can't recall now whether it was during or after my treatment (ended 12/31/08), my husband experienced a lot of throat fullness and pain and weird swallowing, and went to an ENT; there was apparently nothing there, and we hope it continues that way... was it just sympathy pains? Emotional stress from my treatment experience? Who knows? But I do pray that you will be fine and that you will NOT have to deal with both of you having to undergo this treatment.