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Enlarged Tonsil -- Cancer?

Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) | Last Active: Apr 15, 2023 | Replies (11)
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@rjake12003

If I have a biopsy of my tonsil will it indicate whether cancer cells are present anywhere else in the throat? Symptoms overlap between tonsil cancer and throat cancer. I'd hate to be clean with a tonsil biopsy only to learn later that the cancer cells were elsewhere in the throat and went undetected. Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

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Replies to "If I have a biopsy of my tonsil will it indicate whether cancer cells are present..."
Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Feb 7, 2023

Jake, the biopsy will likely be an incisional biopsy of the tonsil or a fine needle aspiration biopsy of a lump in the neck. To rule out cancer anywhere else, your team will likely also order imaging studies for example a CT (computed tomography) scan, PET scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

These are really good questions to ask your doctor. Have you had any imaging done already?

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