Reconstruction is accomplished with skin grafts, or flaps of skin and muscle and possibly bone. The risks of surgery are dependent on the surgery performed. When all or part of the tongue is removed, there will be varying degrees of impairment of speech and swallowing depending on the extent of the portion of the tongue resected. The risks associated with a neck dissection are discussed in that section. The risks of a particular surgery should be thoroughly explained by the surgeon prior to the surgery.
Chemotherapy refers to medication given, usually intravenously, to destroy cancer cells.
Since chemotherapy is usually given intravenously, it travels throughout the body and is able to destroy cancer cells throughout the body. Therefore, its primary role in throat cancer is to destroy cancer cells that have spread throughout the body. In the last few years, however, it is starting to become apparent that chemotherapy with radiation therapy is as effective as surgery and radiation therapy at curing large throath cancers. This is a very complicated question. Whole textbooks can and have been dedicated to this subject.