Hi Kacy,

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail, because I've done that too many times before and I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing it. But, my daughter's case is somewhat similar to your dad's. She was diagnosed in August 2002 with stage 4 tongue cancer. She had surgery, then radiation. She now has a recurrence and her surgeon has said he won't operate because the tumor is too large and growing too fast. It would be "heroic surgery" because she would be terribly disfigured and he probably couldn't get all the cancer anyway, at least not with clean margins. So she will be doing chemo.

The good news (if anything about this is good) is that since the tumor is growing fast, the chemo would have a relatively good shot of getting it. Chemo targets fast growing cells which is why it is not generally recommended for oral cancer except in tandem with radiation. It sounds like your dad's tumor is also growing fast, so chemo makes sense. Hope this helps a little. Hang in there.

Rainbows & hugs, wink
Rosie

Was primary caregiver to my daughter Heather who had stage IV base of tongue SCC w/ primary recurrence. Original diagnosis August 21st, 2002. Primary recurrence March 18th, 2003. Died October 6th, 2003.