In an interview with Le Parisien, journalist Guillaume Durand confided in his jaw cancer and its consequences. He revealed that he underwent surgery and is now in remission.
- Jaw cancer, which affects the mandible, is manifested by tooth pain, swelling, unexplained tooth mobility, difficulty swallowing or speaking.
- A clinical examination of the jaw, an endoscopy under general anesthesia and a biopsy of the oral cavity can help detect the tumor and confirm the diagnosis.
- The treatment of jaw cancer is based on radio-chemotherapy or surgery, which then requires the use of a reconstruction technique with a bone flap (fibula, scapula).
Last May, Guillaume Durand, at the head of the morning of Classic Radio since 2008, had withdrawn from the antenna for unknown reasons. “Life sometimes reserves, in the field of health, stray bullets from which we recover with rest. No drama, I come back quickly”, he said a few days after being replaced by Dimitri Pavlenko. At the end of December, he announced his return during the month of January on his Twitter account. “Thank you science/medicine. First jogs after a hell of a cancer operated on for 10 hours on June 25. Then chemo and radio followed by a good Covid”, wrote Guillaume Durand.
“A banal toothache”
In an interview given to Parisian, on January 8, the 69-year-old journalist opened up about his jaw cancer. As a reminder, “The most common tumor of the jaw and maxilla is squamous cell carcinoma invading the bone through dental sockets. This can involve any part of the jaw or maxilla”, can we read on the website of the MSD Manuala medical information portal.
Guillaume Durand returned from his eight-month fight, which he likened to “a boxer who took a big hit”. He remembered that everything had “started with a banal toothache in the spring”. But jaw cancer can also manifest as swelling, unexplained tooth mobility, difficulty swallowing or speaking.
After suffering from this pain in the teeth, the former presenter of France 2 decided to go to a stomatologist at the beginning of June. The practitioner referred him to a radiologist specializing in the mandible. “His diagnosis: an infected wisdom tooth, but no cancer”, he said.
His “jaw was going to be replaced by a piece of fibula”
The radio host underwent a first operation. “Then an incomprehensible haemorrhage. A second stoma removed a molar. With a biopsy, this time. The next day, my doctor told me that I had a cancerous tumor”, he continued. In the case of jaw cancer, “we tend to offer surgery as first intention if possible”, specified to Women’s Journal, Dr. Nadia Benmoussa-Rebibo, ENT doctor at the Gustave Roussy Institute. This is the treatment offered to Guillaume Durand.
He met a surgeon who explained to him that his “jaw was going to be replaced by a piece of fibula”. After this long and heavy operation, the sexagenarian was reassured because his face was not deformed. On the other hand, he lost 12 kg. “The most unsettling are the side effects. My voice has become deeper. I have lost hair. My hands were shaking to the point of not being able to aim at my mouth when I was eating”, confided the journalist.
Guillaume Durand, who is now in remission, specified that, if his “Jaw surgery had been canceled for pandemic reasons, I wouldn’t be here today”.
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