Chapter 20: The priest with bad breath
A 66-year-old Catholic priest complained of halitosis (to be honest his parishioners complained more than he did). He smoked two packets of cigarettes a day and it was widely believed that he drank more of the communion wine than he blessed. When his doctor examined him there was a painless swelling on the left side of his hard palate with a central area of ulceration.
He was referred to the ENT consultant who arranged a CT scan.
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1. What does the CT scan show?
Correct answer:
Soft tissue mass with ipsilateral lymphadenopathy.
A biopsy of the mass was performed that confirmed squamous cell cancer of the oral cavity.
He next had a CT-PET scan.
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2. What does the CT-PET show?
Correct answer:
Both the primary tumour and the lymph nodes were avid on FDG-PET. The tumour staging was pT2N3M0.
are all associated with a higher risk of ovarian cancer.
He was treated with extensive surgical resection and reconstruction followed by adjuvant radiotherapy. He never delivered another sermon.