Hi,
I am Naveen 39yr detected with tongue cancer.
gone through the surgery on 8th October- 13, 27 nodes sent for examination all are negative.
Dr also told me no further treatment is required but regular followup is required.

Please let me know what precautions should I take & what are recurrence chance .

Naveen

Hi Naveen - You have come to the right place for help and information from people who have had similar experiences to yours. It would help if you could give us more information about where exactly the tongue cancer occurred, for example was it further back where the tonsils are or in some other area of your tongue. Was there a biopsy performed before you had the surgery? Did the doctors say what Stage it was? I'm sure others will be along to welcome you and help you with information. Until they get to you, maybe you could read the information on the main pages of this site - just go to the very top of this page where it says "Oral Cancer Foundation". There is excellent information there that can help you think of questions you might want to ask. If you need help figuring out some of the abbreviations, just go here: http://web.utk.edu/~aalix/abbreviations2.html

Hi Anne,
Thanks, I am new in this group, In September 13 I got to know that I am having Tongue cancer ( Ulcer on Right lateral border of Tongue) & my Dr. who is ENT specialist he told me after biopsy that it is in a very early stage of same unfortunate that it is cancer but fortunate that it is in very early stage.

The Report :- Squamous cell carcinoma showing morderate to poor differentiation.

Neck - No palpable lymphadenopathy
Throar - No Trismus, No Ankyloglossia
There is 1.5cm x 1.5cm ulcer seen on right lateral border of tounge which is situated opposite to premolars, surrounding induration of 2 to 3mm all around
IDl : Both Vocal Cords Mobile.
HPR : Mod to poorly diff SCC.

Procedure Done on 08.11.13 - Partial Glossectomy (R) and selective neck dissection (Right)

I hope above details are ok if more details are required plz let me know.

Regards
Naveen

Welcome Naveen.

Glad your cancer was found early, and only surgery was needed. As far as what you can do now is you can have scheduled visits with your ENT, who will do palpable and visual exams, scopes, maybe schefuled. diagnostic scans, and you too can be vigilant with frequent checkings of your mouth, neck, for anything unusual like ulcers, lump in neck, difficulty swallowing, etc. that doesn't go away. I found all my cancers, eight of them, on my own through self exams, except one, which were suspicious to the doctors also, and proven positive on further diagnostic testing, and that is key too, to find cancers early, instead of later, so they can be treated more easily. I think that's what has helped me. Abstinence from other carcinogens like smoking, drinking, chemicals, eating a healthy diet with fruit and vegetables, correcting or controling any other co-medical conditions like anemia, low vitamin D, thyroid, testosterone, kidneys, diabetes.

Good luck

Welcome to OCF, Naveen! Sorry you have the need for our group.

Sounds like your OC was caught in its early stages before it was able to spread into the lymph nodes. Catching it early is always best for easier treatments and better outcomes.

You will learn many things about OC by reading and educating yourself thru our site. Use your experience as a wake up call to try to go thru life making the healthiest choices.

Best wishes with your recovery from surgery.

HI there... paul was on the mark with everything. Diligence is the key here.

One question... did the doctor mention perineural involvement? This is when the tumor touches a nerve. I ask this because my tumor (very similar to yours) was 1.5 cm deep - which is how yours was described. - mine was a little longer but the depth when dealing with nerves is what matters. Perineural involvement usually indicates that follow up treatment is needed.

There are several factors...
-spread to nodes (which you did not have)
-extracapular extension (which is related to nodal involvement)
-and/or perineural involvement.

the premise is that cancer follows the path of least resistance... in this case your nerves.

So based on the depth of your tumor, and the fact that you are moderate to poorly differentiated... I would be very diligent in knowing what is normal in your mouth, and neck and make sure you go for follow up appointments and hightail it back to the drs. at the first sign of anything unusual.

welcome - best of luck and congrats on getting through it.

PS - you may need physio for your neck and shoulder - r/t the neck dissection.

take care.

Just curious why the neck dissection when no involved lymphs?

Hi Naveen,
My husband just had his surgery yesterday and I feel so grateful that he got a second opinion. The first doctor was going to dissect the neck and remove a similar number of nodes from his neck, but the second doctor decided not to do the dissection unless he had proof that it was necessary.
We should get the results do the labs test next week to determine nodes involvement.

We're keeping our fingers crossed.

If no treatment is required, I says you are a lucky person!
Patty

After surgery for stage 1 cancer of the vocal cord we were surprised when the doctor suggested a neck dissection just to make sure there was nothing in the nodes. We were allowed to go on a 10 day cruise first but unfortunately my husband got very sick coming home with strep and the surgery was canceled. Then with the holidays and our son's wedding in CA it was re-scheduled in January. I felt we made a mistake by delaying surgery and going on the cruise.

I truly believe it was God's hand and his timing. We found out that his second surgery in the same year would not of been covered but by waiting till after Jan. 1st it was covered. Also, there was cancer found in just one node out of 23 that was very small.

I truly think if he had the surgery right away the cancer might not of reached the node yet and we would of thought we were home free only to discover it down the road and further along. Instead, he is doing great and life is good other than the loss of some of his voice. Things could be worse instead of appearing like you have laryngitis all the time.

A neck dissection with certain types of oral cancer (usually non HPV) is often done as this cancer can be aggressive and seed to the nodes - in the early stages it does not show up on a scan leading people to mistakenly believe they are clean when in fact they are not - and usually end up with a second surgery once a node pops up. Nodes are sometimes precautionary - I've seen it happen numerous times (most recently to someone I know's husband) where they operated didn't remove any nodes or too few only to have the cancer come back with a vengeance. I scanned clean twice before my surgery (one was an MRI) my dr was insistent I was having a neck dissection, node popped up before my surgery. Scans aren't 100 %. Even if it's an early stage cancer how aggressive it is dictates the spread a lot of the time.

A neck dissection also depends on the tumor size, thickness, location of tumor, tumor histology or grade, if it's midline on the tongue, base of tongue, other areas, and the base of tongue, tonsils have a high propensity to metastasise due to the high lymphatics they are, as well as HPV metastising early to the nodes, which tumors may bigger than the primary itself, and and other negative prognostic findings like extracapsular spread, invasion, perineural invasion, lymphovascular invasion.

Hi Naveen, sorry you had to be here but then this place has great people and lot of information that will help you in your journey.

Please do share where you had your treatment from and doctors as there are some visitors from India as well and they might get some help.

You now need to take good care of yourself. Had you been tobacco consumer/drinker?

Keep checking in and all the best for future.

Hi Everybody.

Thanks for the reply.

Please let me know what precautions I have to take after this??
I Have to live like this only with regular checkups and all?
What are the chances or recurrence.
Any treatment to avoid the same to come again.

Thanks
Naveen

Hi Naveen,

I was diagnosed with the same desease over a year ago. My lesion was about the same size as yours. The doctor performed only a surgery and no further treatment was required. He said if we can avoid radio then we would usually avoid it, if we have to do it - we do it. From this website I noted that the choice of treatment depends on the country. In US they tend to do radio in all circumctances (i might be wrong though). I was treated in UK and I know many patients avoid radio here.

With regards to the recurrence chances - probably no-one will tell you this. You should stay on a long-term follow-up and your doc will keep a close eye on you. Try to think that you are treated and throw away from your head all the negative thoughts about R*********!!!

Hi

I had my treatment done at B L Kapoor Hospital at New Delhi ( INdia) The Dr. Ramalingam told me that there is no need of radiotherapy or chemotherapy is required just followup is required.
.
Regards
Naveen

ok.. then trust your Dr. if he told you this

How much did it cost you to go through the treatment?

Keep a close eye on your mouth and neck. Anything unusual quickly get in to see the dr again. You may never have a recurrence but diligence is key.
take care.

[quote=navkal]

Please let me know what precautions I have to take after this??[/quote]

Don't drink or smoke. When I read that 70% of people who drink after going through successfully beating it the first time, have it recur; I quit drinking entirely. (When it came back 18 months later, I restarted, but only since I'm incurable anyway at this point.)

[quote=navkal]I Have to live like this only with regular checkups and all?[/quote]

I strongly recommend that you adjust the way you look at your situation. You will always have to have check-ups of one kind or another, and that is simply your situation in life. Remind yourself that this is just like brushing your teeth and don't give it have any more thought you would give the need to brush your teeth regularly.

[quote=navkal]What are the chances or recurrence.[/quote]

No one can answer that. Since this is the case, don't give it a thought; it's not something that you can control.

[quote=navkal]Any treatment to avoid the same to come again.[/quote]

My strong advice is use this experience as a reminder that life is uncertain, fraught with danger of infinite variety, and completely unpredictable. This is the case with every human who has ever lived, and thus no different to you, or me, or anyone else.

Since the above is true, and it is not something that we can control, the path to a peaceful mind in dealing with it is to give it no thought, beyond that necessary to survive when disaster, such as a cancer diagnosis, does strike.

When disaster does strike, focus your thoughts on the immediate need to survive and identify and take those steps that you can control; such as getting proper medical (and/or other) treatment for the problem.

When I say, "focus your thoughts on..." that means that when your thoughts start to wander and begin to wonder about the future, you actively direct them away and back to focusing on what you can do and control.

When you don't do that and let your thoughts focus on what the outcome will be, you are inviting suffering and misery into your mind because no matter what you do, you cannot control that which is beyond your ability to control and frustration and fear are all that you will produce.

In every situation, there is usually an outcome that you would prefer and it's a good idea to plan for and take every action within your power to obtain that outcome. BUT, and this is huge, do not attach to that outcome.

If you heed this, you will have mental peace from the knowledge that you have done everything in your power to achieve the favorable outcome, and whatever the outcome actually is; you have no more power over that than you have over the weather. That is, none. Such is the nature of life. Live and Celebrate it!

Where did the 70% number come from? Would really like more info on that !

Honestly, I read that the day I got the pathology report from the surgeon who removed the first tumor from under my jaw (she thought she was going to be removing the Parotid gland, and it turned out to be a metastatic tumor in a Lymph gland.)

I believe I read it on the NCI (National Cancer Institute) web site, but after more than 4 years and a ton of chemo, I can't be sure. Sorry.

[quote=navkal]I Have to live like this only with regular checkups and all? [/quote] Trust your doctor and have regular follow-ups. You'll have more frequent follow-up now but then it will gradually increase to once in 3 months to 6 months and then to annual follow-up.

[quote=navkal]
What are the chances or recurrence.
Any treatment to avoid the same to come again.[/quote] Nobody can tell you about the chances or possibility of recurrence. Eat healthy, get back to routine, stay fit. If you had smoker or drinker in past, don't even think of going back to it again.