Directly performed surgery to treat thousands of patients

Graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy in 1998, to date, Dr. CKII. Do Tuong Huan has been involved in head and neck cancer surgery for more than 20 years and has directly performed surgery to treat thousands of cases.

While working at the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, the young doctor witnessed patients suffering from the terrible cancer with many severe sequelae every day. That motivated him to always strive to learn and improve his skills, hoping to find the best surgical methods, limit complications, and improve the patient's aesthetics.

“Head and neck surgery is a challenging field because the anatomical structure is relatively complex. The biggest challenge in treating head and neck cancer is that in addition to trying to cure the disease, we must also ensure the aesthetics and function of the head and neck area, helping patients integrate well into life after treatment. However, this is also a field that attracts me, so I chose to pursue this specialty,” Dr. Huan shared.

Passionate about his work, Dr. Huan always takes advantage of opportunities to learn and deepen his expertise in the field of head and neck cancer surgery. Dr. Huan said that as a cancer surgeon, in addition to solid skills, he needs to have the ability to empathize and understand patients, because almost everyone feels hopeless when they discover they have cancer. He always tries to spend as much time as possible explaining and encouraging patients, helping them to have confidence in fighting the disease.

In October 2022, Dr. Huan officially joined the team of the ENT Department of FV Hospital as a Head and Neck Cancer Surgeon. This can be considered a turning point in his career.

Talking about the reason for choosing FV Hospital as an important place to work in his career, Dr. Huan said that he wanted to develop his career to a new level. FV Hospital has a team of good doctors, a modern operating room, and invested in a very developed cancer center, the Hy Vong Cancer Treatment Center, with very good cancer treatment support facilities such as external radiotherapy, radioisotope radiotherapy, pathology with cryoablation, etc. Moreover, FV is an international general hospital with a full range of specialties, so treatment has interdisciplinary coordination, bringing convenience and speed in disease treatment.

" My colleagues and I in the oncology field all want to find optimal treatment methods for patients, maximize the benefits of modern facilities, and bring convenience and the highest quality of treatment to patients. There is no greater joy than seeing our patients overcome cancer and confidently return to life. Their smiles with their loved ones after each successful surgery are the motivation for us to always strive to improve our expertise and the quality of each surgery," Dr. Huan said.

Together with his colleagues at FV, Dr. Huan hopes to develop this place into a trusted address for domestic and foreign patients who need surgery to treat tumors in general and head and neck cancer in particular. The goal is not only to cure patients, but also to ensure aesthetic and functional factors after treatment.

Experienced specialist in thyroid cancer treatment

According to Dr. Huan, common head and neck cancers include thyroid cancer, parotid and submandibular salivary gland cancer, and head and neck skin cancer. Among them, thyroid cancer is the most common, usually occurring in middle age (45-50 years old), but sometimes it can occur in teenagers aged 10-14 years old.

Dr. Huan said that thyroid cancer has a high cure rate: the 5-year survival rate for well-differentiated thyroid cancer is 98-99%, and the 10-year survival rate is 90% or more. “ It is common to confuse benign and malignant goiters. However, goiters have evidence of being benign in most cases, so patients should not be too worried when they discover a thyroid nodule,” said Dr. Huan.

When a goiter is detected, the patient should go to a medical facility or an oncology specialist for examination. The patient will be biopsied for a more detailed diagnosis. If it is malignant, surgery will be performed. In the small goiter stage, the doctor will consider removing only a part of it. If it is detected late, the entire thyroid gland will have to be removed. In the late stage, the goiter may have spread to the neck and invaded other organs, causing hoarseness, difficulty breathing, swollen lymph nodes in the neck....

“The thing that surgeons who treat thyroid cancer worry about the most is the complications after surgery, especially the effects on the voice. Because surgery can affect the nerve fibers that control the voice. These fibers range from small to very small, visible to invisible to the naked eye, so care must be taken during surgery. In addition, there is the risk of affecting the parathyroid glands that regulate calcium in the blood. Avoiding affecting these parathyroid glands is also a difficult problem for surgeons, requiring meticulous and gentle surgery,” Dr. Huan added.

At FV Hospital, cancer patients can receive combined treatment with multiple methods at the same location, with interdisciplinary coordination, including the Hy Vong Cancer Treatment Center with full equipment, always updated with the most advanced cancer treatment techniques. Doctors will consult together, choose personalized treatment methods for each patient: surgery, I 131 radiation, endocrine therapy... the purpose is to ensure optimal treatment effectiveness, reduce complications, and help patients have a high quality of life after treatment.

To prevent thyroid diseases, Dr. Huan said that people need to build a balanced diet, not too much or too little iodine. To know exactly whether the body has too much or too little iodine, you can do a blood test. However, this method is rarely used. Therefore, a general note is that for city people with a full diet, rich and diverse foods, they will usually not be deficient in iodine. On the contrary, people in remote areas are at risk of iodine deficiency and need to supplement more.

To make an appointment with Dr. Do Tuong Huan, ENT Department, please contact: (028) 54 11 33 33, extension 7711.

Yen Le