Sorry to hear of the cancer diagnosis, but welcome Karen. It could have been an incisional biopsy, whereby they take some of the suspected tissue and enough normal tissue, so they can see if it has wide enough margins or an excisional where not enough tissue was taken. Anyway, not much you can do about that now, but as Christine mentioned, see a CCC.

Laser is good since it does not effect future radiation or surgery, and small T1 is often treated by radiation or by surgery. Due to smoking, there is something called "field of radiation" where cancer cells are in nearby structures where the cancer was from, due to the carcinogen exposure, like smoking, but not seen with HPV, so it's not surprising that some come back in acdifferent area, in addition, there could metachrounous or synchronous cancer in the aerodigestive tract, lungs. I would think they would do a full work up, and a pandendoscopy to see if cancer is anywhere in the aerodigestive tract, and one of the scans, CT, PET/CT. You may want to find out the cancer stage, TNM grading, histology from the pathology. Try to get copies of everthing for your personal file, like bloodwork, cd's of any scans, biopsy pathology, and if needed for a 2nd opionion, most will want this.

By quitting smoking, you already increased your chances of success, and reduction of recurrences or secondary cancer. The longer you remain smoke free the more added benefit you'll have.

Good luck with everything,