I am 50, and have been a very consistent cigar smoker for the past 11 years. I constantly monitor my mouth area for signs of cancer. For the past 3 weeks, I have had pain in certain areas of my neck which come and go and some of my glands or swollen. However, during this period, I have felt run down at times, like I have a virus (burning eyes, sleeping during the day, that virusy feeling). I am not sure, but I feel at times like I have a virus.

The only signs in my mouth from smoking is a white area on the roof of my mouth (which I have had for years, and which most heavy cigar smokers get), and I just noticed a red patch (which is not raised, bleeding or sore) towards the back of the roof of my mouth. Otherwise, I get checked for signs of oral cancer every 3 months by my dentist. My dentist is not too concerned about the white area on the roof of my mouth, but of course she said it could be pre-cancerous. My throat is not sore at all, and I have no signs of cancer on my tongue. However, once in a while, when I eat something hard, and it hits the way bottom left of my throat in a certain area on the side, parallel to my vocal cords, it hurts a little. However, my neck area hurts in the same place as the occasional throat pain. But this pain in the throat is very rare, and once this happened before, and I went to an ENT Doctor, and he said is was irritated from acid reflux.

What is the chance that I do have oral cancer, and it has spread to the glands of my neck. Sometimes even the back of my neck hurts on the sides. Sometimes, my neck does not hurt at all. I feel that the swollen glands in my neck are from some type of virus, since at times I feel like I have a virus, but can't be sure. I have about two swollen glands that I can feel in my neck area on the left side, but at times all of my neck hurts, and at times it goes completely away. There is no blood coming from anywhere of my mouth. I am not weak and am not losing weight. The pain in my neck is sometimes positional, and I have no cancer history on either side of my family. What do these neck pain symptoms sound like? I know that I could easily get oral cancer from how many cigars I smoke, but somehow, I don't feel that this is the cause of the swollen glands or my neck pain, I feel that the virus is. But of course, I could be wrong. What do you think? Thanks.