Chapters Transcript Video Father of Five and Military Veteran Wins Battle Over Throat Cancer My name is fred Escovedo and I am a cancer survivor. I am the primary care take care of my Children. Since I retired, we have five kids. They're all boys. This is the most difficult job that I have done in my entire life and I've been military for 20 years and a combat zone. This is far more difficult. I notice like something was in my throat, like I couldn't clear it fred ended up having a squamous cell carcinoma, which is the most common cancer we see in the head neck area. In addition, his was caused by the HPV virus, which is now really the most common cancer that we see in the back of the throat. At first I was in denial that I don't smoke. I don't do anything crazy. So why did this happen to me? We as physicians, owe it to our patients to look at them not as their disease, but as an individual, we are very lucky at Miami Cancer Institute to be able to provide our patients with multidisciplinary subspecialty access specifically in the head neck. We see patients together myself, the medical oncologist, radiation oncologists, speech language pathologist, dental oncologist when needed will also join the group. The good news is with this particular type of cancer. It actually responds well to treatment, but we have to individualize which treatment is going to be best for the patient. In the long run I received radiation therapy and chemotherapy. The patients who receive specifically radiation and chemotherapy and the head neck. It can be very difficult journey for them. It was hard to eat. I lost quite a bit of weight. They have the support services that are able to provide nutritional support. Pain management um is very important for our patients. Everyone was very caring. The a team I got pain management was extremely good and nutrition people who are always trying to find different ways for me to do keep myself healthy. Everything was in one location. It was very convenient and very helpful. The subsequent imaging was concerning for a residual small amount of cancer in the back of his throat. Fred was lucky in that we now have access to trans or robotic surgery, which is a minimally invasive way of getting to some tumors in the back of the throat. And we were able to remove his tumor through his mouth with the surgical robot. He spent one night in the hospital and went home the next day. I am cancer free right now. The day I rang the bell, I felt it was very emotional. I felt relief that the treatment was completed and I was hopeful for the future. I would like to see my kids grow up, see my grandkids. I feel blessed to have a second chance in life. Created by
