I just finished with 30 radiation treatments, no chemo, no surgery. My SCC was at the right base of tongue, only symptom was a sore throat that wouldn't go away.

I went to two different doctors back in December and January complaining of the sore throat, I had a cold over Thanksgiving, but the sore throat wouldn't go away. Both gave me antibiotics, which did nothing. Then my right lymph node on neck started swelling too. One doctor thought it was an infection, more antibiotics, nothing changed. The first doctor scheduled me for a biopsy of the lymph node, which came back negative for SCC.

The lab guy and the doctor both said it could be a false negative and maybe I should go see an expert. I was then sent to the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for a check up. They put a camera on a tube up my nose/down my throat and found the cancer at the very base of my tongue. They did a biopsy and found it was HPV 16 SCC, stage 4.

I was admitted to a clinical trial which had no chemo therapy, and only 5 weeks of radiation, M-F, twice on Thursdays, 6 hours apart. Total of 30 radiation treatments, the last of which was yesterday, 6/27/16.

I do feel like crap today, my throat is killing me, and have lost 20lbs but from what I've been reading in other blogs, I've had it easy with no chemo. I just hope it heals up quickly. I'll be reading and asking questions from time to time, thanks for making this web board available.

Oh, I'm 56, healthy (other than this!), never smoked, I'm active outdoors, and have been a faithful husband for 29 years of marriage. My wife was not impressed when I was diagnosed with HPV. She did accuse me of cheating on her as I'm an airline pilot and that's the cliche we live under, but I have not. I did however have many partners before settling down with her 30+ years ago. She found on other blogs that this stuff can take 30-40 years to show up, after exposure, which is exactly what the doctor told her, but she still doesn't believe it.