Most people who are diagnosed with throat cancer won’t see anything unusual if they look in the mirror, open their mouths and say, “Ahhhh.”

“That’s because there’s usually not much to see,” says head and neck surgeon Miriam Lango, M.D. “These tumors are often buried deep in the throat, or hidden under the surface of the tissue. Throat cancers are usually quite small, too, and they can be very difficult to see, even by trained experts...