I am so confused. My brother did the surgery with an Otolaryngology doctor on June 24, 2014. Our doctor works out of Beaumont Royal Oak and thats where my brother had his surgery. They do have a cancer center but I dont think its a comprehensive cancer center. (I tried to open ChristineBs list of comprehensive cancer centers and it wasnt working) I opened the hospital one just fine and U of M-Ann Arbor MI was number 24.

Anywho...our doctor who performed the surgery recommended that my brother does a neck dissection to remove lymph nodes and then to do 1 week of brachytherapy (which is radiation implants).

Today- we went to a 2nd opinion at Karmanos Cancer Center. The doctor there says that both Karmanos and U of M-Ann Arbor are the comprehensive Cancer Centers in MI.

This was his opinion...

I think because of the close margins, the lympathic problem, the vascular invasion I would recommend additional therapy which would be radiation therapy alone. I would recommend IMRT opposed to an implant radiation (brachytherapy) I would not recommend an elective neck dissection. The question of verbatix in addition to radiation therapy is an open one. They might recommend it down to cancer centers because of your age group. I personally think its probably overkill.
If he were to do a neck dissection I think 1 chance out of 5 that we will find cancer cells�

Can someone please help me? I am so lost.




22 YO Brother Dx 6/17/14 w. SCC R Lateral tongue
CT scan clear LN 6/20/14
HPV-, non-smoker
R tongue, right hemiglossectomy Surgery 6/24/14
(Not reoccurrence but went to NCCC instead
R neck dissection, tracheostomy, radial free flap, R tongue dissection surg 8/11/14
PT1N2B.3 positive lymph nodes out of 13
Extranodal extension present
9-15-14 IMRT (35x) & Cisplatin (2x) begun
10-21-14 peg in. 10-31-14 1 round of carboplatin
11-4-14 IMRT rx comp
3-27-15 Recurrent tumor in lymph node, L neck diss.
10-29-15 brother passed away, 23 yrs old