Is ear pain and itching normal after tongue cancer treatment?

Post-treatment symptoms like ear pain and itching can be concerning, and it's completely understandable to wonder if what you're experiencing falls within the normal range of recovery. Many patients experience various side effects that can persist or develop after completing treatment, and these symptoms around the ear area could potentially be related to your recent therapy, though only your medical team can properly evaluate what you're experiencing. Given that you're still in the recovery process and managing other ongoing effects, reaching out to your oncology team or healthcare provider would be the best step to get personalized guidance about these ear-related symptoms and ensure you're getting the support you need during this healing journey.

Hi Brian, I completed my lingual tonsil cancer treatment of 35 radiation and 5 chemo sessions last October. I was on a fentanyl patch for pain management and ended up with a feeding tube for 4 months as well. That was removed last month, and I’m off all pain meds too. The pain and itching in the ear is referred pain, and I had it pre- and post-treatment. Once I got off the fentanyl patch, I started experiencing a high amount of pain in the throat after 6 days, which included pain in the ear and itching too. I thought I was going backwards, and my treatment wasn’t effective, but after about a week on Oxycodone, the pain finally subsided, and I haven’t had any pain meds since January 1st. I am still learning to re-eat, and certain types of food are harder than others. Bread, apples, and some types of meat are hard to swallow. Some foods are proving to be too spicy, even though they weren’t spicy pre-treatment. Hang in there as it does get better. I’m still working with my speech therapist on doing certain exercises and PT, and it is working. Results are slow, and I was reminded last week that the aftermath can take up to or over a year for recovery. What a full recovery will end up looking like is unknown at this time. My taste came back fairly quickly but still not 100%.

Thank you for your support! Hope you recover quickly!

So, so happy they found yours early!! Thank God! Mine is pretty old. You are lucky!! Bless you

Thank you. My cancer was found by an MRI of my neck for something unrelated. A lymph node was enlarged which led them to investigate further. I was lucky.