PEvery year more than 15,000 new cases of ENT cancer (ear, nose, throat, etc.) are diagnosed in France. according to the Cancer Institute. Although it is the fifth cause of cancer, according to the University Cancer Institute of Toulouse, ENT pathologies continue to be largely ignored by both the general public and many experts. However, they should be considered a policy priority in terms of prevention and screening.
The national vaccination campaign against papilloma viruses (HPV) begins for 5th grade middle school studentse, its role in preventing ENT cancers (beyond that of cervical, penile and anal cancers) in younger generations is still ignored. ENT cancers and general head and neck cancer are so poorly understood that today 70% of patients are diagnosed too late to allow effective treatment. notes the Gustave Roussy Institute.
The first explanatory factor is that the initial symptoms of ENT cancers seem harmless and are not very painful: difficulty swallowing, blocked nostrils, persistent hoarseness, persistent mouth ulcers, etc. Health professionals are still poorly informed about these seemingly harmless signs. Above all, they are still little aware of risk factors that are less common than tobacco, alcohol or viruses, whose growing role is still too little understood.
ENT cancers are increasingly affecting younger patients
Obstacles to early diagnosis include the weakness of our medical demographics (France has only three ENT doctors per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the state medical regulations), which slows down scheduling and makes supply routes more fluid. Territorial inequalities increase diagnostic complexity. In addition to the shortage of physicians, the geographical determinants of ENT cancers include occupational or environmental exposure in a particular area, as well as social characteristics that influence the prevention and early detection of these cancers.
On this topic, the example of the Hauts-de-France region, which has an excessive male mortality rate due to cancer of 60%, is edifying, a difference of 50%, according to the local regional health authority, with other regions, and highlights inequalities in access to care pathways. This is all the more worrying as ENT cancers affect increasingly younger patients (regardless of their gender or lifestyle) and diagnostic digression leads to mutilating treatments such as removal of the tongue, jaw or even nose.
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