June marks National Cancer Survivor Month

JACKSON, Tenn. — June marks National Cancer Survivor Month.

“We diagnose roughly 67,000 new patients per year. That number continues to rise over the last several years. That constitutes roughly four percent of all cancers diagnosed in this country,” said Dr. Mark Urken, a head and neck surgeon.

It is not always a very easy thing to notice when you may have head or neck cancer.

Symptoms can be very common things. However, there are some instances that could happen that you need to look out for.

“Some very common things, such as a sore throat, a lump in the neck, or some patients may not have any symptoms at all. The presence of a lump inside the mouth or an ulcer are also significant findings that should trigger getting help and getting an expert set of eyes to help to make a diagnosis,” Urken said.

Steve Holzer, who is a cancer survivor, simply found a lump on his neck. Luckily, he got it checked out and was able to be treated.

“Shaving one day and I found a little lump on my neck. You can see a little bit of the scar right there. We didn’t know what it was. They took it out and four days after that they did a pathology test and found out that I had cancer,” Holzer said.

Holzer says it was hard, and a lot of times, he felt alone while getting treatments. Holzer wanted to get involved with the Made of More Initiative to help spread awareness of head and neck cancer.

The Made of More Initiative provides information regarding head and neck cancer.

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