Is throat cancer contagious?

Once many people are diagnosed with a disease, the first thing they worry about is whether the disease they have is contagious, especially for more serious symptoms such as laryngeal cancer. So is laryngeal cancer contagious?

Laryngeal cancer is a relatively common malignant tumor, with an incidence rate of about 1% to 5% of all tumors in the body. It ranks third in the field of otolaryngology, after nasopharyngeal cancer and nasal and paranasal sinus cancer. The most common age is 50 to 70 years old. It is more common in men than in women, with a ratio of about 8:1. The highest incidence rate is in Northeast China, North China and East China.

The cause of laryngeal cancer is not yet clear, but patients almost always have a long history of smoking. Symptoms vary depending on the location of the cancer. Hoarseness may occur in the early stages of vocal cord cancer, while supraglottic cancer often presents with discomfort in the throat or foreign body freezing, pain, and is often not obvious, which can easily delay diagnosis. In the late stages, obvious hoarseness, laryngeal gurgling, shortness of breath, dyspnea, pain, swallowing disorders, neck masses, and cervical lymphadenopathy may occur.

So far, it can be said with certainty that cancer is not contagious. In simple terms, contagion means that a disease is transmitted from one person to another through some means. Contagion must meet three conditions: the source of infection, the route of transmission, and the susceptible population. Clinical data prove that cancer patients themselves are not the source of infection.

Besides, cancer is not currently listed as an infectious disease in the world, and patients are not isolated as they would be for infectious diseases. The cancer incidence rate of medical staff in cancer hospitals is not higher than that of the general population. So I would like to advise everyone that if family members or friends have cancer, do not worry about infection, but spend more time with them and offer them warmth and love, which will help the patients recover soon.

To sum up, laryngeal cancer is not contagious, so if someone in your family has laryngeal cancer, you don’t have to worry too much, as it will not affect your normal daily life.