I had no noticeable symptoms. As I was shaving, I found a small lump at the back edge of my jaw, just behind my ear lobe. It was so small that I didn't pay much attention. Two or three weeks later it was noticeably larger, so I made an appointment with my general practitioner. He put me on a broad spectrum antibiotic for 10 days, during which time the lump continued to grow. He referred me to an otolaryngologist (head and neck doctor). There was another wait before seeing him, and he referred me to a surgeon for a needle biopsy. Another wait for the appointment, then another wait for results. It was diagnosed as a malignant carotid-body ganglioma. They referred me to a cancer treatment center, another wait, but I finally go there in two days. During all of that time, the little pea-size tumor has grown to about an inch and a half, and I have started having night sweats that soak my pillow and sheets. I hope to find out what the treatment will consist of, and what the side effects might be like. I have done a lot of searching online, and seen incidence rates ranging from 1/30000 to about 3/ 1,000,000. Men, like myself, are 1/2 as likely as women to have it. Of the ones who have it, it is malignant about 10-20% of the time. So what are the odds of me having what I have? Not much. I have been through too much in my 74 years to be worried now. But I never have liked to be kept in suspense.