Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] hi ,my grandmother(75 years) is suffering from 3rd stage cancer on lip and in throat.Her wound has become infected with worms probably maggots..can maggot therapy be used to help remove the maggots?is there any other method?please help .she is in a lot of pain
[|AI|]  Hi, Thanks for writing in. Cancer of the lip should be treated depending on the treatment response after initial chemotherapy and radiation therapy. As the cancer is stage 3 therefore the tumor is large. Nodes should be searched for in the neck region. The presence of nodes makes is possibly stage 4. In this case there is a need to first give chemotherapy as that can make the node to decrease in size and then surgery might be possible. Some doctors also recommend radiation after chemotherapy to shrink the tumor and then make it operable. First the maggots causing infection need to be treated with medications and the cancer area to be kept clean. For the proper staging, both CT scan and pathology reports are to be assessed in detail. The chances of five year survival in head and neck cancer is better than other cancers with proper treatment and follow up. Five year survival for stage 3 lip cancer is 35 percent and is better than most other cancers. Please do not worry.