What to Know About Hard Palate Cancer

Hard palate cancer is a rare oral cancer that forms on the roof of your mouth. While the exact cause may be unclear, some of the most common risk factors include tobacco and alcohol use.

This form of cancer often appears as a bump or sore in your mouth that doesn’t go away. You may feel it with your tongue.

If you receive a diagnosis of hard palate cancer, your doctor can recommend a course of treatment based on the cancer’s advancement. Options include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy.

It’s usually treatable in its early stages, and surgery can help increase your survival rate.

Read on to learn more about hard palate cancer.

Symptoms

The most common symptom of hard palate cancer is a bump or ulcer on the roof of your mouth that won’t heal.

Often, you can feel it with your tongue, but it can be tough to see without dental tools. When the bump is visible, it can be an open sore, a raised dark area resembling a mole, or a rough white patch.

Other symptoms of hard palate cancer can include:

• bad breath
• difficulty swallowing
• a sensation of loose teeth
• loose-fitting dentures
• a lump in your neck
• changes to your speech

Stages

Doctors use stages to describe the size and spread of cancer tumors. In the lower stages, tumors are smaller and typically easier to treat, and higher stages show that tumors are larger and the cancer has spread.

Stages of hard palate cancer include :

• Stage 1: In this stage, tumors are less than 2 centimeters (cm) and have grown less than 5 millimeters (mm) into tissue.
• Stage 2: Tumors in this stage have grown deeper into your tissue but haven’t spread to lymph nodes or surrounding areas.
• Stage 3: These tumors are larger and have spread more than 10 mm into tissues.
• Stage 4A: In this stage, the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes, but it hasn’t spread to other surrounding areas.
• Stage 4B: This cancer stage has spread beyond your lymph nodes and into nearby muscles and tissues.
• Stage 4C: In this stage, cancer has spread beyond your lymph nodes and into your body’s distant regions.

Causes and risk factors

Hard palate cancer is rare — in fact, only about 5% of all oral cancers may be hard palate cancer.

Rare diseases can be more challenging to study, so many experts don’t know exactly what causes hard palate cancer. However, the American Cancer Society shares that oral cancers often link to tobacco and alcohol use.

Diagnosis

Sometimes, healthcare professionals can spot hard palate cancer during a routine dental exam, and your dentist can recommend further testing. Testing may include:

• Biopsy: A biopsy is the only way to confirm a diagnosis of hard palate cancer. During the procedure, a doctor removes a small piece of the suspected tumor and examines it for cancer cells.
• Imaging: Imaging tests such as CT scans or MRIs can help doctors see the size and spread of the tumor. Seeing the size and spread can help them determine the stage and plan treatment.

Treatment

The treatment plan your doctor recommends can depend on a few factors. For instance, the stage of cancer at diagnosis and your overall health can influence which treatment options are right for you.

Some treatments for hard palate cancer include:

• Surgery: Sometimes, surgery can resolve early stage cancer, and you won’t need other forms of treatment.
• Maxillectomy: This surgery type involves removing the hard palate and the tumor. The surgeon replaces the removed palate with tissue from another body part or a prosthetic.
• Neck dissection: During neck dissection , a surgeon can remove lymph nodes affected by the cancer.
• Radiation: This can clear cancer cells after surgery.
• Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy is another option that doctors use to remove cancer cells. They sometimes use it with radiation.
• Immunotherapy: Immunotherapy is another option doctors can use to get rid of remaining cancer cells. This treatment can help your immune system find and destroy cancer cells.

Outlook

The outlook for hard palate cancer depends on factors such as the stage at diagnosis, treatment response, and your age and overall health. Early stage hard palate cancer can sometimes be treatable with surgery, but late stage hard palate cancer can be more difficult to treat.

Because hard palate cancer is rare, data on survival rates is limited. However, research used in a 2020 study showed that the 5-year survival rate can be between 33% and 86% .

Survival rates can vary significantly, depending on initial tumor size and the treatment used. The previous study linked surgery to higher survival odds.

The bottom line

Hard palate cancer is a rare oral cancer that causes a tumor to form on the roof of your mouth. It can cause symptoms such as a lump, bad breath, difficulty swallowing, and loose teeth.

This form of cancer is highly treatable, especially in its early stages. Surgery to remove the tumor is typically the first line of treatment, followed by options such as radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.