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A Physician's Personal Experience

Itzhak Brook, MD, MSc

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2009;135(2):118.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Learning that I had hypopharyngeal cancer shook me to my core. I had to accept for the first time that I am not invincible and that life has an end. Suddenly, I was faced with the potential beginning of the end. Even though the small cancer (T1N0M0) in the retropharynx was surgically removed and I received local radiation, I was uncertain about my future. I slowly recovered from the radiation adverse effects and gradually believed that I was actually cured. However, after 20 months I had a local recurrence (T2N0M0) at a different location (right pyriform sinus). Unfortunately, my surgeons were unable to completely remove the tumor by laser after 3 attempts. At that point, I became frustrated and exhausted (emotionally and physically) and elected to undergo complete pharyngolaryngectomy with flap reconstruction at a different medical center with greater experience with this type of cancer. The . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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