Doctors decided against surgical excision of this “unsettling” fungating neck tumour but did manage to improve the patient’s quality of life with some meticulous wound care.

The patient, a 34-year-old African-American inmate in Florida, initially sought medical attention for longstanding bilateral lymphadenopathy, weight loss and dysphagia.

Neck CT showed a mass totalling 5.2cm x 5cm x 4.4cm, while PET scans revealed three enlarged and hypermetabolic lymph nodes with “activity” in the tonsils.

Additional tests, including biopsy, confirmed invasive SCC of the right tonsil with likely cervical nodal metastasis.