I decided to start a new thread since the other one was getting so long. We had an appointment today at UW-Madison, and our fears were confirmed. Ron's cancer is back already (his 2nd salvage surgery was just 8 weeks ago). I knew something was going on because last week was my spring break from work and we went to my sister's in MO. and he slept anywhere from 14-16 hours a day without even realizing he was sleeping that much. He just noticed this new nodule in his right cheek about 10 days ago. The Surgeon did a punch biopsy and sent it to path right away and we heard within the hour that it was positive for malignancy. We won't get the full path report for a couple of days but are assuming it is again SCC.
We were then sent immediately to a Radiation Oncologist there, where he discussed the use of brachytherapy. I was glad to hear that we even had a radiation option left. First we will get another PET/CT to re-stage the cancer. Hopefully, there will be no mets. The RO seemed to think that if this is localized to the right buccal area the brachytherapy should take care of it. He did not think that Chemotherapy would help at all. Do any of you agree with this position? I don't. This is the 3rd occurence of cancer since July of 2008, 4th in total since 2005. I feel like we are running out of options since it is recurring so quickly each time. I want to throw everything we can at it right now. We see our Medical Oncologist tomorrow morning, and I am hoping that he will want to do further chemo. He had discussed using Erbitux this time. What do you think? I don't want to continue to be so passive. I feel like I need to go in and pitch a fit for Ron to have the best chance. Thanks for your opinions, you are all the best judges for treatment to me.
Lori