The mouth and oropharynx

The mouth and oropharynx help us breathe, talk, eat, chew and swallow. The medical term for the mouth is the oral cavity. Mouth cancer includes cancer that starts anywhere in the oral cavity. In other words, the

• Lips
• Front two thirds of the tongue
• Upper and lower gums, (the gingiva)
• Inside lining of the cheeks and lips (the buccal mucosa)
• Floor of the mouth, under the tongue
• Roof of the mouth (the hard palate)
• Area behind the wisdom teeth (called the retromolar trigone)

Pharynx is the medical name for the throat. The pharynx is divided into 3 parts, and the oropharynx is one of these parts. The other two parts are the nasopharynx and the laryngopharynx.

The oropharynx connects the mouth to the top of the throat. It is the part of the throat just behind the mouth. Cancers that start in this area are called oropharyngeal cancers. Oropharynx is pronounced oar-o-fah-rinks. Oropharyngeal is pronounced oar-o-fah-rin-gee-al.

The areas within the oropharynx include

• The back third of the tongue
• The soft area at the back of the roof of the mouth (the soft palate)
• The tonsils and two ridges of tissue in front of and behind the tonsils (called the tonsillar pillars)
• The back wall of the throat

The term throat cancer can be confusing, as people use it to mean different things. The throat includes the 3 parts of the pharynx (including the oropharynx). People also use the term to include structures near the pharynx, such as the thyroid gland, the voice box (larynx) or the food pipe (oesophagus). So throat cancer is not a very precise term.

To avoid confusion, it is important to know the exact medical name of the cancer you or your relative have so that you can find the right information. Cancers are treated according to where they start in the body. The treatment for thyroid cancer is not the same as treatment for oropharyngeal cancer, for example. If you are not sure of the medical name of your cancer, you can ask your doctor or nurse to write it down for you.

There is information in the questions and answers section of CancerHelp UK to help you understand the term throat cancer and guide you to information about the type of cancer you need to know more about.

Like other parts of the body, the head and neck contains lymph nodes (also called lymph glands). These small, bean shaped glands are part of the lymphatic system. Lymph nodes are often the first place cancer cells spread to when they break away from a tumour.

There are major groups of lymph nodes in the neck. Because they are close to cancers that start in the mouth and oropharynx the cancer can spread to these lymph nodes. So people with these types of cancer often need an operation to remove lymph nodes from the same side of the neck as the cancer. More rarely, a surgeon may suggest removing nodes from both sides. These operations are called neck dissections.

There is more information about the lymph glands and the lymphatic system in the about your body section.

Cancer that begins in the lymph nodes (rather than spreading to them) is called lymphoma. If you are looking for information about lymphoma, this is not the right section for you. You need to go to the non Hodgkin’s lymphoma or Hodgkin’s lymphoma section.