Laryngeal and Hypopharyngeal Cancer

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After Laryngeal and Hypopharyngeal Cancer Treatment

For many people with laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer, treatment can remove or destroy the cancer. The end of treatment can be both stressful and exciting. You might be relieved to finish treatment, but it’s hard not to worry about cancer coming back. This is a very common feeling if you’ve had cancer.

For others, the cancer might never go away completely. Some people may still get regular treatments to try and control the cancer for as long as possible. Learning to live with cancer that doesn’t go away can be difficult and very stressful.

No matter what your situation is, there are steps you can take to live well, both physically and emotionally.

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Follow-up care

After finishing treatment for laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer, you will still see your cancer care team regularly. They may want to monitor you for signs of the cancer coming back (recurrence) and treat any long-term side effects caused by your cancer or treatment.

Ask your doctor about a survivorship care plan

Talk with your doctor about creating a survivorship care plan for you. This plan can guide your next steps after treatment, including follow-up appointments and ways to stay healthy.

A survivorship care plan might include:

  • A suggested schedule for follow-up exams and tests
  • A schedule for other tests, such as screening for other cancers or monitoring for long-term health effects from your cancer or treatment
  • A list of possible late or long-term side effects, including what to watch for and when you should contact your doctor
  • Diet and physical activity suggestions
  • Reminders to keep seeing your primary care provider (PCP) for regular healthcare and cancer screening tests

What to expect during follow-up visits

People with cancer of the larynx or hypopharynx are at risk of the cancer coming back and also at risk for developing new cancers in other parts of the body. Your cancer care team will watch you closely after treatment.

Your care team will tell you which tests should be done and how often. This is based on the type and stage of your cancer, the type of treatment you had, and your response to that treatment.

You will probably have follow-up appointments for many years. It's very important to go to all of them. During these visits, your cancer care team will ask if you are having any problems. They might order lab tests or imaging tests to look for signs of cancer returning, a new cancer, or treatment-related side effects.

Watching for late and long-term side effects

Almost any cancer treatment can have side effects. Some last for a few days or weeks, but others might last a long time. Some side effects might not even show up until years after you finish treatment.

Your follow-up visits are a good time to ask questions about these side effects. Talk to your cancer care team about any changes or problems you notice or concerns you have. But don’t hesitate to report any new problems to your doctor right away. This might help them find recurrent cancer as early as possible, when it is small and easier to treat.

Exams, tests, and rehabilitation

If no signs of cancer remain, many doctors will recommend you have a physical exam and some of the tests listed below every 3 to 6 months for the first couple of years after treatment, then every 6 months or so for the next few years.

People who were treated for early-stage cancers may do this less often.

Your head and neck will be examined regularly. This will often include a laryngoscopy. The usual schedule is about:

  • Every 1 to 3 months during the first year
  • Every 2 to 6 months during the second year
  • Every 4 to 8 months during the 3rd to 5th years
  • Every year after the 5th year

Chest x-rays and other imaging tests might be used to watch for recurrence or a new tumor, especially if you have new symptoms.

Radiation can affect your thyroid gland. If you were treated with radiation, you will most likely need regular blood tests to check how well your thyroid is working.

Radiation might also cause problems with dry mouth and tooth decay. Regular dental exams are often recommended.

Both radiation and surgery can lead to problems with speech, swallowing, and hearing. These are often checked and treated by a speech therapist.

See Restoring speech after a total laryngectomy to learn more about this.

If cancer treatment affected your hearing, you might also need to see a specialist in hearing loss, called an audiologist. They can help you with devices such as a hearing aid.

Even after treatment, you might not gain weight or replace your protein stores as well as you should be. You might need follow-up visits with the nutritionist to help you with this.

Questions to ask your care team

  • Do I need a special diet after treatment?
  • Do I need to see a specialist to check my speech and swallowing?
  • Are there any limits on what I can do?
  • What other symptoms should I watch for?
  • What kind of exercise should I do now?
  • What type of follow-up will I need after treatment?
  • How often will I need to have follow-up exams and imaging tests?
  • When should my next endoscopy be done?
  • Will I need any blood tests?
  • How will we know if the cancer has come back? What should I watch for?
  • What will my options be if the cancer comes back?

Managing long-term effects of treatment

Tracheostomy (stoma) care after total laryngectomy

If you have a stoma (tracheostomy), the air you breathe will no longer pass through your nose or mouth. This normally helps moisten and warm the air. It also filters the air by removing dust and other particles. This means the air going into your lungs will be dryer and cooler. It may irritate the lining of your breathing tubes and cause thick or crusty mucus to build up.

Caring for your stoma

It's important to learn how to take care of your stoma. You'll need to use a humidifier over the stoma as much as possible, especially right after the surgery, until your airway lining has a chance to adjust to the drier air. You'll also need to learn how to suction out and clean your stoma to help keep your airway open.

Your healthcare team can teach you how to care for and protect your stoma. This includes taking precautions to keep water out of your windpipe while showering or bathing. It also includes keeping small particles out of your windpipe.

Support groups

Support groups formed by other people with tracheostomies can be good sources of information. These groups can help you learn about stoma care and using products to protect and clean it.

Restoring your speech after a total laryngectomy

Total laryngectomy removes your larynx (voice box). After this surgery, you will not be able to speak using your vocal cords. Your windpipe (trachea) is separated from your throat, so you also can no longer send air from your lungs out through your mouth to speak.

But there are ways you can learn to talk after total laryngectomy. 

Learning to speak again will take time and effort, and your voice will not sound the same. You will need to see a speech therapist trained in helping people who’ve had a laryngectomy. The speech therapist will play a major role in helping you to learn to speak.

The options for restoring your speach could include:

This is the most common way surgeons try to restore speech. It can be done either during the surgery to treat the cancer or later. TEP creates a connection between the windpipe and esophagus through a small hole at the stoma site. A small, one-way valve put into this hole lets you force air from your lungs into your mouth.

After this operation, you can speak by covering your stoma with a finger to force air out of your mouth. With some newer “hands-free” models, you do not have to cover the stoma to speak. It takes practice, but after surgery you can work closely with a speech therapist to learn how to do this.

If you cannot have a TEP for medical reasons, you may use an electrical device to produce a mechanical voice. You might also use this while you are learning to use your TEP voice.

The battery-operated device is placed at the corner of your mouth or against the skin of your neck. When you press a button on the device, it makes a vibrating sound. By moving your mouth and tongue, you can form this sound into words. You'll need training with a speech therapist to learn to use it.

Your esophagus is the tube that connects your mouth to your stomach. With training, some people learn to swallow air into their esophagus and force it out through their mouth. As the air passes through the throat, it causes vibrations. With training, these vibrations can be turned into speech. This is the most basic form of speech rehabilitation. New devices and surgical techniques often make learning esophageal speech unnecessary.

Getting help with swallowing and nutrition problems

These cancers and their treatments can sometimes cause problems swallowing, dry mouth, or even loss of teeth. This can make it hard to eat, which can lead to weight loss and weakness from poor nutrition.

You might need to adjust what you eat during and after treatment. Or you might need nutritional supplements to help make sure you get the nutrition you need. Some people need a feeding tube placed into their stomach.

A team of doctors and nutritionists can work with you to help you maintain your weight and get the nutrients you need. They can also show you swallowing exercises to keep these muscles working and give you a better chance of returning to eating the way you did before treatment.

Restoring your sense of smell

Nearly everyone who has a laryngectomy will find they cannot smell things the way they did before. This is because air no longer travels through your nose. Problems with smell are called olfactory disorders. These can affect your appetite, sense of taste, food enjoyment, and how much you eat.

If you lose your sense of smell, or if you smell odors that are not really there, olfactory rehabilitation might be another part of your recovery.

With olfactory rehabilitation, you can learn techniques that cause air to flow through your nose. This may help you recover your sense of smell. Examples are the nasal airflow-inducing maneuver (NAIM) and polite yawning.

Olfactory rehabilitation is available at some large medical centers. Talk to your healthcare team to learn more.

Sexual impact of laryngectomy

Living with a stoma after a laryngectomy can affect your sexual intimacy because of changes in the way you look, talk, and breathe. But you can do several things to help with intimacy. Learn more in Sexual Side Effects.

Staying prepared and organized

Even if you’ve completed treatment, it’s still important to be organized and stay on top of your health. Keeping your records and health insurance coverage in order makes it easier to manage follow-up care, future checkups, and any new concerns that may come up.

Keep your health insurance

It’s very important to keep health insurance as a cancer survivor. It can help cover the cost of follow-up visits, tests, and any care you may need in the future. No one wants to think about cancer coming back, but it’s best to be prepared.

Save your medical records

At some point, you may see a new doctor who doesn’t know your cancer history. Keep copies of your medical records so you can easily share the details of your diagnosis and treatment when needed.

Can I lower my risk of the cancer progressing or coming back?

You might want to know if you can do anything to lower your risk of laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer growing or coming back, like exercising, eating a certain type of diet, or taking nutritional supplements.

Quitting smoking

If you smoke, quitting smoking for good is the best way to improve your chance of survival.

Smoking during cancer treatment can reduce the benefit of treatment and increase the risk of cancer coming back. Smoking after treatment can also increase the risk of getting a new smoking-related cancer.

It is never too late to quit. If you need help quitting smoking, talk to your healthcare team or call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345.

Adopting other healthy behaviors

Adopting healthy behaviors like eating well, getting regular physical activity, and staying at a healthy weight might help, but no one knows for sure. However, we do know that these types of changes can have other health benefits.

About dietary supplements

So far, no dietary supplements have been shown to clearly help lower the risk of laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer progressing or coming back. That includes vitamins, minerals, and herbal products. This doesn’t mean that no supplements will help, but it’s important to know that none have been proven to do so.

In the United States, dietary supplements are not regulated like medicines. They do not have to be proven effective (or even safe) before being sold, although there are limits on what they’re allowed to claim they can do.

Talk to your healthcare team before taking any type of nutritional supplement. They can help you decide which ones are safe and which ones might be harmful.

If the cancer comes back

If your laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer does come back at some point, your treatment options will depend on where the cancer is located, what treatments you had before, and your health.

See Understanding Recurrence to learn more.

Could I get a second cancer after treatment?

Some cancer survivors develop a new, unrelated cancer after treatment. This is called a second cancer. Survivors of laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer can get any type of second cancer, but they have an increased risk of certain types.

Survivors of laryngeal cancer can get any type of second cancer, but they have an increased risk of:

Many of these cancers are linked to smoking and alcohol use, which are also risk factors for laryngeal cancer.

Survivors of hypopharyngeal cancer can get any second cancer, but have an increased risk of:

Many of these cancers are linked to smoking and alcohol use, which are also risk factors for hypopharyngeal cancer.

Can I lower my risk of getting a second cancer?

You can take steps to stay healthy and lower your risk of getting another cancer.

For example, follow the American Cancer Society guidelines for the early detection of cancer and stay away from tobacco products.

To help maintain good health, it’s also important to:

  • Get to and stay at a healthy weight.
  • Keep physically active and limit the time you spend sitting or lying down.
  • Follow a healthy eating pattern that includes plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
  • Limit or avoid red and processed meats, sugary drinks, and highly processed foods.
  • Avoid alcohol. If you do drink, have no more than 1 drink per day for women or 2 per day for men.

These steps may also lower the risk of some cancers.

Getting emotional support

Some amount of feeling depressed, anxious, or worried is normal when cancer is a part of your life. Some people are affected more than others. But everyone can benefit from help and support from other people, whether this is from friends and family, religious groups, support groups, professional counselors, or others.

Learn more in Life After Cancer.

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Developed by the American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team with medical review and contribution by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

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Mendenhall WM, Dziegielewski PT, Pfister DG. Cancer of the Head and Neck. In: DeVita VT Jr, Lawrence TS, Rosenberg SA, editors. DeVita, Hellman, and Rosenberg’s Cancer: Principles & Practice of Oncology. 12th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer; 2023.

National Cancer Institute. Physician Data Query (PDQ). Hypopharyngeal Cancer Treatment. 2/12/2025. Accessed at https://www.cancer.gov/types/head-and-neck/patient/adult/hypopharyngeal-treatment-pdq on February 29, 2026.

National Cancer Institute. Physician Data Query (PDQ). Laryngeal Cancer Treatment. 2/12/2025. Accessed at https://www.cancer.gov/types/head-and-neck/patient/adult/laryngeal-treatment-pdq on February 29, 2026.

National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology: Head and Neck Cancers. Version 1.2026 – December 08, 2025. Accessed at www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/pdf/head-and-neck.pdf on February 20, 2026. 

Last Revised: May 28, 2026

American Cancer Society medical information is copyrighted material. For reprint requests, please see our Content Usage Policy.

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