An academic who runs ultramarathons has told how he dismissed the signs of his cancer as the lingering after-effects of a cold.
Anson Mackay, who lives in east London, initially contacted his GP in January 2020 when he suffered from swollen glands in his neck for weeks.
But within hours of completing an online form, he was told to see his GP immediately and the 57-year-old was referred to an ear, nose and throat specialist.
Tests showed that the geographer and emeritus professor at University College London had cancer in his lymph nodes.
Scans then revealed he had squamous cell carcinoma of his right tonsil, a type of throat cancer, caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).
HPV, a virus that affects the skin and cells that line the inside of the body, is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) worldwide, but it can also be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact.
Despite intensive weeks of radiotherapy treatment in which he celebrated “no evidence of the disease remaining” in August 2020, just a year later he received the devastating blow after scans revealed it had spread.
Diagnosed with stage 4 HPV cancer in both lungs, it is the most serious type, meaning it spreads to other parts of the body.
Anson Mackay, who lives in east London, initially contacted his GP in January 2020 when he was left with swollen glands in his neck for weeks.
But within hours of completing an online form, he was told to see his GP immediately and the 57-year-old was referred to an ear, nose and throat specialist.
However, after two years of successful treatment with immunotherapy, his cancer is stable and there is no current evidence of disease on scans.
Now, he’s asking everyone to come forward to get their “life-saving” HPV vaccine.
Cancers affecting the head and neck are the eighth most common form of cancer overall in the UK, although they are two to three times more common in men than women.
Around 12,500 new cases are diagnosed each year, according to Cancer Research UK, and the incidence is rising.
It is estimated that about 4,000 people die annually from this disease.
The general term head and neck cancer refers to cancers of the mouth, larynx, nose, throat, salivary glands, and paranasal sinuses.
Doctors have recently warned that they are seeing cases of throat cancer in “much younger patients” and suggest that oral sex is driving this worrying trend.
A report from October revealed that hundreds more people are dying from the disease than before the Covid pandemic, with cases increasing by almost 50 per cent since 2013.
The new findings add to previous research that found that since the early 1990s, rates of head and neck cancer have increased by more than a third in Britain, with the trend partly due to patients being diagnosed younger.
Tests showed that the geographer and emeritus professor at University College London had cancer in his lymph nodes. In the photo, with his partner David.
Scans then revealed that he had squamous cell carcinoma of the right tonsil (a head and neck cancer) caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).
Smoking, alcohol and human papillomavirus (HPV), a normally harmless virus that is transmitted sexually and through skin contact, are the main causes.
Most head and neck cancers caused by HPV occur in the throat, base of the tongue, and tonsils.
According to the NHS, around eight in 10 people will contract HPV at some point in their life and their body will clear it without any problems.
However, some varieties of the virus can remain in the body for a long time. Data suggest that the HPV16 virus may be responsible for about 70 percent of oropharyngeal cancers.
Mackay said: “The first time I suspected something was wrong was when some swollen glands in my neck didn’t go down after I had a cold at the end of December 2019.
‘After New Year, I filled out an online request form to see my doctor, not expecting an appointment for about a week.
“But very quickly I received a call asking me to go see a doctor immediately.”
After a week they did an ultrasound of his neck and throat and performed a biopsy by injecting a fine needle into the swollen lymph node to extract some fluid and check for cancer cells.
Despite intensive weeks of radiotherapy treatment in which he celebrated “no evidence of the disease remaining” in August 2020, just a year later he received the devastating blow after scans revealed it had spread. In the photo, during radiotherapy treatment.
Following the results of her cancer biopsy in March 2020, when Covid restrictions began, she was told she would undergo seven weeks of chemoradiotherapy and four weekly chemotherapy sessions.
Part of his radiation treatment targeted the cervical lymph nodes in his neck, since the cancer had spread there from his right tonsil.
Speaking of his experience in a blog post seriesdocumented the treatment’s debilitating side effects, including muscle spasms, mouth ulcers, and even tactile hallucinations, such as worms crawling inside the mouth.
“At other times my saliva was, and still is, so thick that I can’t even spit it out,” he said.
‘My mouth and tongue are constantly dry, so eating and talking has now become a problem, which at least saves me from Zoom calls.
“This meant I couldn’t really chew any food and could only tolerate liquid foods like soup.”
Even in the weeks and months that followed, she suffered intense bouts of fatigue, weight loss, and neck tenderness and a lower vocal range.
But in August 2020, five months after his diagnosis, MRI results showed he had “no evidence of remaining disease” in his body.
Discussing her experience in a series of blog posts, she documented the treatment’s debilitating side effects, including muscle spasms, mouth ulcers, and even tactile hallucinations, such as worms crawling inside her mouth.
Routine checks over the following months found no changes in his tissue that would suggest a return of the cancer.
However, almost a year after receiving the positive news, she began experiencing some breathing difficulties and “asthmatic hay fever,” which she attributed to pollen and difficulty urinating.
In July 2021, his oncologist referred him for tests and in September he was told that CT scans showed there was swelling in his chest pressing against his right lung.
Just days later in October, Mr Mackay was diagnosed with stage 4 secondary HPV cancer in both lungs, meaning it was incurable.
After two years of immunotherapy treatment, which ended in November 2023, he was again told there was no evidence of tumors in his head, neck, chest or abdomen.
Since then, scans have not identified any changes and his stage 4 cancer continues to be monitored.
Experts have repeatedly urged people to get vaccinated against HPV to reduce the risk of HPV cancers.
However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), HPV vaccination in the UK is strikingly behind other countries: just 56 per cent among girls and 50 per cent among boys.
Only 67.2 percent of girls were fully vaccinated in 2021/22, down from a high of 86.7 percent in 2013/14. Around 62.4 per cent of children, who have been offered the vaccine on the NHS since 2019, were vaccinated in the most recent school year, NHS data shows.
Denmark, by comparison, records a rate of around 80 percent.
“The HPV vaccine is crucial in the fight against the rise in cancer cases,” Mr Mackay told MailOnline.
30 percent of all head and neck cancers are caused by high-risk HPV.
Experts have long suggested that confusion and stigma around the HPV vaccine have contributed to these low acceptance rates.
The vaccine is often presented simply as a prevention of cervical cancer or associated with sexual activity, which alienates people, they argue.
Tamara Kahn, CEO of Oracle Head and Neck Cancer UK, also said: “In reality, the HPV vaccine is a powerful cancer prevention tool that can protect against a variety of cancers, including head and neck, cervical and other HPV-related anogenital cancers.
‘We are calling on the government, the NHS and our partners to work with us to ensure families have the information they need to make fully informed decisions about the HPV vaccine.
‘These are decisions today that will influence the health and future of the next generation.
“Early detection also significantly improves treatment outcomes and can save lives.”