Medically Reviewed By: Dr. Neeraj Goel, MBBS, MS, MCh. This article has been reviewed as a member of Multidisciplinary tumor board with reconstructive surgery and head & neck surgical teams.
Designation: Director – Cancer Surgery & Robotic Surgery
Clinical Review Date: August 18, 2026
Head and neck cancer is a broad term for tumors that start in the moist surface lining of your mouth, throat, or voice box.
These growths most commonly develop in four main regions:
In recent years, tonsil and back-of-the-tongue cancers linked to the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) have become far more common. Today, our primary clinical goal is not only clearing the cancer completely, but also protecting the things that make everyday life normal—your ability to speak clearly, swallow food comfortably, and look like yourself.
Most head and neck cancers develop after years of irritation to the delicate lining of the mouth and throat:
Because early head and neck tumors rarely hurt, they are easy to overlook. Get checked by a specialist if you notice:
For tumors deep in the throat—like the tonsils or the back of the tongue—Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS) has changed how we operate.
In the past, reaching these tumors required large facial cuts and splitting the lower jawbone open (mandibulotomy). With TORS, the surgeon works entirely through your open mouth using robotic instruments, leaving your face and jaw completely untouched:
Neck Dissection: Checking the Lymph Nodes
Head and neck cancers often spread early to lymph nodes in the neck. A neck dissection is an operation to remove these at-risk lymph nodes, while carefully protecting vital neck blood vessels, shoulder nerves, and muscles.
When an operation requires removing parts of the jaw, tongue, or cheek, reconstructive surgeons step in immediately:
Not every patient needs surgery alone; non-surgical options play a central role:
Our team is highly experienced in managing head and neck tumors. We use cutting-edge technology, such as robotic surgery (TORS), to manage these tumors. In conjunction with plastic surgery, free flaps and complex reconstructions are routinely performed.
In our operating rooms, clearing the cancer completely is always priority number one, but preserving your voice, appearance, and ability to eat dinner with your family comes right alongside it. With robotic TORS, we have moved away from jaw-splitting surgeries for tonsil and tongue-base tumors. Most of our robotic patients experience far less pain and are drinking fluids and soft foods within just a few days of surgery.
HPV-linked tumors usually grow in the tonsils or the back of the tongue, often develop in younger non-smokers, and generally respond better to modern robotic surgery and radiation therapy.
Usually, no. Most operations for mouth, tonsil, and tongue tumors leave your vocal cords untouched. Even for voice box tumors, we prioritize voice-sparing treatments like radiation or partial robotic resections whenever safely possible.
Because there are no external cuts on your face or neck, recovery is significantly smoother. Most patients go home in 2 to 4 days and get back to eating soft foods much faster than with open surgery.
If scans show or suggest that cancer cells might have traveled to your neck lymph nodes, removing them is the most reliable way to clear the disease and prevent it from returning.
