RLM, I also felt good about my ENT/surgeon from the first appointment I had with him. I still have a lot of trust and faith in him and I'm very glad that there is a doctor as good as he is practicing in my town and basically being the person in charge of followup to my cancer treatment.

But twice since I became his patient I have also gone to get a more expert second opinion and both times that opinion was incredibly helpful. The first time was at his urging, actually, after my partial glossectomy, because the radiation oncologist at the radiation medicine center at the hospital at that time was saying I didn't need radiation and my ENT thought I did. I took all my records and sent all my pathology slides to Dana Fraber and got a very thorough exame by an ENT there and then a very thorough consult with and MO and RO from their head and neck team. The RO made it very clear that I did need radiation, and why, and the MO strongly suggested I have chemo as well--even though that was a very agressive recommendation he was confident it could reduce my chances of a recurrence and after talking to him and reading some research articles he gave me I agreed.

I came back to my ENT here and was able, with some help from him, to get these recommendations implemented here.

I also have a top notch MO here who used to practice at Sloan so I'm very happy with both those local doctors (less so with the RO who ended up treating me but that's another story).

The second time I went for a second opinion was just recently when my swallowing problems were not getting better, even with recommended exercises, and I wanted to be really sure I was doing everyting I could to recover swallowing ability. The result of that second opinion (which someone on this board helped me arrange) caught undiagnosed strictures in my esophagus which had been totally missed when the hospital here had given me a modified barium swallow test (My ENT is not to blame here since he never saw the barium swallow directly, just based his recommendations on the report). I got a referral to a surgeon at Dana Farber (turns out she's the same one that examined me for the other seocnd opinion) who can do the surgery to fix this problem (hopefully).

There is clearly a difference between the knowledge and care you get from a CCC with a head and neck cancer team and being treated by individual doctors affiliated with a local hospital, regardless of how good those doctors are. This is simply because at the CCC they have seen more cases of oral cancer--that is ALL they see--and know more details about how to treat different issues, and ,as Amy mentioned, test for different issues. It's not an insult to a good ENT, such as yours, to say you want to get a seocnd opinion just to be sure. In fact, my ENT has been very supportive both times I wanted another opinion and very receptive to leanring about anything I found out that he hadn't told me about.

On the other hand, you have an early stage cancer and you're probably going to be OK not doing that if that's what you choose.

Nelie