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St Luke’s Medical Center
2900 W Oklahoma Ave
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Tel: 414-649-3920
Email: info@drstevensperry.com
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Skin Cancer of the Head and Neck: When You Need More Than a Dermatologist
Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, and the head and neck — the face, scalp, ears, and neck — are among the most frequently affected areas given their lifetime exposure to the sun. For most patients, a dermatologist manages skin cancer effectively: a quick biopsy confirms the diagnosis, an in-office procedure removes it, and the patient moves on. But for a meaningful subset of patients, skin cancer of the head and neck requires a level of s
Salivary Gland Tumors: Not All Lumps Are Cancer
Discovering a lump near your jaw, just in front of your ear, or beneath your chin is understandably alarming. Most people who come to see me with a swelling in or around the salivary glands assume the worst. The reality is more reassuring than you might expect: the majority of salivary gland tumors are benign. But benign does not mean harmless, and it does not mean ignore it. These tumors require proper evaluation, accurate diagnosis, and in most cases, surgical removal. Unde
Hypopharyngeal Cancer: A Rare but Serious Diagnosis
Hypopharyngeal cancer is one of the least common — and most challenging — cancers I treat in my practice. It arises in the lower portion of the throat, the region that sits just behind the larynx and connects the throat to the esophagus. Because this area is involved in both swallowing and breathing, tumors here can cause problems that affect two of the most fundamental functions of daily life. If you or someone you love has been given this diagnosis, the most important thing
Fibula Free Flap for Jaw Reconstruction: Rebuilding the Mandible
When a patient needs surgery to remove a significant portion of the jaw — whether because of oral cancer, bone invasion from a gingival tumor, or osteoradionecrosis after prior radiation with infection — the prospect of living without a complete mandible is frightening. The jaw is not just a structural frame. It defines the shape of your face, enables you to chew and swallow, and anchors your lower teeth. Losing part of it, without reconstruction, would mean a permanent, disf
Living With a Free Flap: Long-Term Recovery and What to Expect
Most of the articles I have written about free flap reconstruction focus on the procedure itself or on the hospital stay. Those are important, but they cover only the first week or two of what is a much longer process. Patients who have completed the acute phase of recovery — who are home, healing, and past the early milestones — often find themselves with a new set of questions: When will the swelling go down? Why does the reconstructed area feel numb? When can I eat normall
The Multidisciplinary Tumor Board: How Your Cancer Treatment Plan Is Made
When you are diagnosed with head and neck cancer, the decisions that follow are among the most important of your life. Which surgery is needed? Does radiation come first, or after? What about chemotherapy? These questions rarely have a single obvious answer, and the right plan depends on details that no one specialist can fully evaluate alone. This is why, before your treatment begins, your case is almost certainly being discussed by a group of specialists who have never met
Tongue Cancer: Diagnosis, Surgery, and Recovery
Tongue cancer is one of the most common cancers of the oral cavity, and it is also one of the most significant. Because the tongue plays a central role in eating, swallowing, and speaking, cancer in this location carries implications that extend well beyond removing the tumor itself. What happens afterward — how you eat, how you talk, how your mouth works — matters enormously, and planning for that recovery begins at the time of diagnosis. I want to walk you through what tong
Radiation Therapy After Surgery: What Head and Neck Cancer Patients Should Know
For many patients, surgery is not the end of treatment — it’s the beginning of a longer road. When I perform a major head and neck cancer resection, one of the questions I hear most often in the days that follow is: Will I need radiation? It depends, and the recommendation comes from a careful review of your pathology, your anatomy, and your overall health. If radiation is recommended, knowing what to expect — why it’s done, what it feels like, and how to get through it — ma
Preparing for Major Head and Neck Surgery: What to Do Before You Go In
Major head and neck surgery — whether a jaw reconstruction, a neck dissection, a robotic resection of an oropharyngeal tumor, or a procedure requiring a free flap — is not a small undertaking. The operations themselves can range from three to twelve or more hours in the operating room, often followed by several days in an intensive care unit and a hospital stay measured in weeks, not days. What happens before you ever arrive at the hospital matters more than most patients rea
What Is Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS)?
If your doctor has mentioned transoral robotic surgery — TORS — as a possible treatment for your throat cancer, you are likely trying to make sense of what that actually means. The term can sound intimidating, and for most patients it describes something they have never heard of before their diagnosis. This article is meant to explain what TORS is, why it exists, who it is appropriate for, and what the experience looks like for a patient going through it. Why Throat Cancer Su
Understanding Your Pathology Report After Head and Neck Surgery
The pathology report arrives a few days after surgery. It is a dense, jargon-heavy document, usually two or three pages, and it contains information that will shape every treatment decision that follows. Most patients have never seen one before. The language — margins, lymphovascular invasion, extranodal extension, perineural invasion — is clinical shorthand that carries real weight, and trying to parse it alone, at home, the night before your follow-up appointment, is not a
Oral Cancer Warning Signs: When to See a Specialist
Most people don't think much about a sore in their mouth until it has been there for a few weeks. That delay is understandable — the vast majority of mouth sores are harmless, caused by trauma, stress, or a minor viral infection, and they heal on their own in a week or two. But some do not, and the ones that don't deserve prompt attention. Oral cancer has significant impacts on vital human functions, and the single most important predictor of outcome is how early it is caught
Free Flap Reconstruction: A Patient's Guide to the Hospital Stay
Surgery for head and neck cancer that involves free flap reconstruction is among the most complex procedures in our field. The operation itself — removing a tumor, rebuilding the defect with tissue transferred from another part of the body, and connecting that tissue to a new blood supply using microsurgery — is a significant undertaking. Patients and families who have been told this is the plan often have a clear question: what actually happens afterward? What does the hospi
Neck Dissection: What It Is and What to Expect
If you've been diagnosed with head and neck cancer, there's a good chance your surgeon has mentioned a neck dissection — either as part of your planned treatment or as a possibility depending on what other tests show. For many patients, this is one of the more intimidating-sounding aspects of the operation. The phrase itself sounds significant. It is significant, but it is also one of the most commonly performed and well-established procedures in head and neck cancer surgery,
What to Expect: Your First Head and Neck Cancer Consultation
Being told you may have cancer of the head or neck is one of the most frightening experiences a person can face. The diagnosis often comes suddenly — a biopsy result from your dentist or ENT, an unexpected finding on imaging, or a neck mass that won’t go away. What happens next can feel overwhelming, and one of the most common sources of anxiety is simply not knowing what to expect. This article walks you through what a typical first consultation with a head and neck surgeon
HPV-Positive Oropharyngeal Cancer: What Patients Need to Know
Oropharyngeal cancer — cancer arising in the tonsils, base of tongue, soft palate, or posterior pharyngeal — has changed dramatically over the past two decades. While this type of cancer was historically linked to tobacco and alcohol use, the majority of oropharyngeal cancers diagnosed today are caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer, there are important things you should understand about th
Head and Neck Reconstruction Overview
Following removal of a tumor or cancer from the sites of the head and neck, such as the tongue or the skin, there is a defect left which...
Parotidectomy for Parotid Tumors
The parotid glands are the largest of the paired major salivary glands (the others being the submandibular and sublingual glands). There...
Early cancer of the larynx
Cancers of the larynx are common, and diagnosed following the onset of hoarseness, or throat discomfort, usually experienced over the...
What to expect with TORS oropharynx tumor resection
The transoral robotic surgery is done under general anesthesia. The surgery starts with an examination of the throat, called direct...
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