I was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) in August 05 and had my parotid gland removed in November 05. I also had 6 weeks of radiation, completed about a month ago now. I did not go to MD Anderson, but I did find that they had a support network that you can call. They will take your information and match it up with someone with very similar characteristics and have them contact you. Soon after I was diagnosed, a woman with ACC similar to mine contacted me, 15 years post treatment, gave me advice, insights, and a source of information from someone who had been through much more than I. This was a great source of hope during the initial "info gathering" phase, since much of the initial reading that I did quoted a 15% survival at 15 years. I'm sure you are aware that info is hard to come by with this disease, if you can find someone in the medical field with access to full journal articles, those were the best for educating myself technically. Just educate yourself on how to read and interpret studies and statistics correctly!

I welcome words of wisdom as well, you don't see a whole lot of ACC discussions here, but would like to!

Mary