Hi, my mom was just diagnosed today with cancer. It started with a lump on her neck. She ignored it for a few months thinking it was a sinus infection. The biopsy revealed she has a small tumor at the base of the tongue that spread to the left side of her neck that the ENT said he could not remove because it was around a main artery. He wants her now to see an oncologist to start massive radiation & chemo to shrink it. We are in a state of shock, all the waiting has been horrible. Does anyone know what my mom can expect in terms of treatment? What will the onlcologist want to do first? She is 57 years old. thanks for listening.
denise

Hi Denise,

Sometimes the order of treatments vary with what the oncologist feels is the best way to proceed. When there is lymph node involvement in the neck, some do a neck dissection first, then follow with radiation, usually twice daily for seven weeks. As far as chemo, there is not agreement amongst the doctors as to which is the most beneficial. One thing they are finding with many cancers is that concurrent radiation and chemo is the most effective. The chemo could be weekly cisplatin, carboplatin/taxol, and/or 5FU, usually for six weeks.

In my mother's case, the doctors are choosing to do radiation and chemo first (chemo is cisplatin)then check the status of the neck nodes. If there is evidence of remaining cancer, they will do a neck dissection.

My mother does not have involvement of the tongue, so others will have to fill you in about procedures dealing with the tongue.

Hope this helps.

Cynthia

Cynthia S
Thanks for your reply, my mom went for her consultation with the oncologist for chemo today,he told her she needed to do a urine test first to see if her kidneys were is good condition for the chemo. Is this common? She also has to make an appointment with a surgeon to put in a porta cath (not sure the term is correct) into her chest for the chemo because her veins are not easy to acess. Then on Aug. 26 she will go back to oncologist to start chemo. I'm just wondering if the tube in her chest will be bothersome and how soon will she start feeling the effects of the chemo. I m not sure if she will start the radiation yet. This is all so new and scary for us, Also do you know how soon after they start treatment do they check to see if the tumor has shrunk? I truly appreciate any info you can give. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer.
denise

Denise,

I've not heard of doing a urine test for kidney function. Usually they draw blood and run a chemistry profile. They are looking at the BUN and creatinine levels to measure renal function.

Hopefully your mother should have no problems with her port-o-cath. It should not cause her pain if properly inserted. The major concern is infection.

Do you know what kind of chemo your mother is getting? And how often? My mother has had 4 weekly infusions of cisplatin and has suffered no side effects, other than thrush in her mouth. This is very common.

As far as checking for tumor shrinkage, I wouldn't expect them to do that until she has completed treatment. Unfortunately learning to wait for results is common with cancer.

Cynthia

Cynthia
Thanks for the information. As of yet I still do no know what type of chemo they will give my mom. She will find out on the 26th, what I am not sure of is when they will tell her about radiation and when she will start receiving that. I am anxious for them to start shrinking the tumor right away, why are they waiting?? This waiting game is so stressful. Thank you for your time.
denise

Denise,

My 37 year old is just completing six weeks of (daily) radiation treatment for tongue cancer. He got three days of chemo two weeks before radiation began and got Cisplatin once a week for the first three weeks of radiation. As you probably know by now, there a variety of protocols for this type of cancer. But you need to know if she will be receiving IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy). You can get a lot of information about IMRT by going to www.varian.com They are one of the manufacturers of this machine and not every radiation facility has it. We had to leave our local area to get this treatment.