hi i am frances"s sister and i am in need of some help with her cancer treatment or lack of it> i also need some help with this computor which is stuck on caps lockwithout the capitals!!!! she is #( (thats thirty nine) and first went to her gp with enlarged lymph nodes> i have had a fine needle biopsy and the opinion of two ent surgeons is that its probably coming from the right tonsil> nodes are various sizes ( five mentioned in ct scan) the largest is a mass of two which is around my sub mandibular gland and each part is three cm in length> to cut a very long story short we have had to battle every step of the way and have now reached a point where we are getting two very conflicting stories from the professionals>

theory one is a radical neck dissection followed by chemo+radiotherapy> we have been told that this would give the best chance of cure> giving the chemo with the radiotherapy makes it fifteen percent more likely for cure> this surgeon is a plastic surgeon with an ent qualification>

theory two is five hundred miles away in the state capital in the major hospital> this is for radiotherapy first then see how the nodes are< if they have not gone a radical neck dissection< fifty percent chance that no surgery would have to happen!!! no problems normally experienced if needed to operate on a already irradiated neck>

does anyone have some hard and up to date figures on these two different approaches> the first is supposidly the american approach the second the european> and i live in canada!!!!!!