I made previous entry to introduce myself at intro site.

I have been recently diagnosed with SCC 3cm base of tongue, 5 cm left neck lymph node.

UAB @ Birminham approached a clinical study with me. The clinical study (in Phase II) is 3 weeks full dose cisplation/docetaxel followed by 6-7 weeks concomitmant docetaxel/radiotherapy with amifostine injections. Last two weeks of radiation would be twice a day.

UAB conventional treatment would likely be IMRT radiation with weekly cisplation/taxol chemo.

My questions:

Anyone out there participate in a clinical trial and how did you decide?

How do you decide if IMRT is the way to go? My understanding is that there is good and bad with it. Better radiation control but may miss getting all of cancer. FDA has approved machinery but application of the radiation has not been standardized.

Anyone know how long IMRT has been around? Are there any cure rates available after the five year period? I am concerned that saving healthy tissue using IMRT could be at the expense of leaving some of the existing cancer alive and well. Scary!

Any help you can give us will be greatly appreciated. You guys are the greatest!

Praying for you.... Bill