Today@Dal

Doctors at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax are helping develop a surgical technique that reduces recovery time from throat and mouth cancer surgery.

"We go through the mouth, we have a scope that allows us to keep the mouth open and then with a microscope and a laser we're able to cut the tumour out," Dr. Matthew Rigby, a head and neck surgeon who does research with Dalhousie University, told Information Morning.

He said this new method cuts a patient's recovery time in half.

When this technique isn't used, doctors have to cut through a person's jaw in order to remove a tumour.

Rigby said that's an extensive surgery that requires a fair amount of recovery time.

Technique researched for 14 years

Radiation or chemotherapy can also be used to treat the tumours either alone or in concert with the surgery, but both have a range of harsh side effects.

Researchers at Dalhousie started looking into this type of surgery in 2002.

"It's certainly becoming more common. In Canada we have the most experience and probably the largest current volume of patients as well," said Rigby.

Rigby said doctors are seeing a disturbing increase in the number of people with cancer at the back of the throat.

"The tonsils and the back of the tongue, the incidents or the rate of cancer is actually increasing and that's because of this HPV-associated cancer, that's increased about 200 per cent over the last 20 years."

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