I have been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma on the right floor of mouth/tongue. I had surgery to remove as well as a follow-up of radiation and followin that, chemo therapy. During radiation I had a sever flare-up and had to stop the IMRT treatment. It was resumed and I concluded the treatment.

My question is if re-radiation of this same area, especially the head and neck, is possible and if so, how many times has this been done before. My understanding was that when you had radiation you cannot reradiate the same part over again? it is true?
Sofar my doctors has suggested IMRT, stereotactical radiation, proton treatment and I have difficulty deciding which would be the best, could you let me know your opinion?

Thank you for your help.
pino

Pino,
I am bringing this up to the top again for more responses.
When did you have RT before, since you say that it was IMRT I presume that it was not more than 6 years ago?
I would expect that the time plays and important role here as well. We have seen more re irradiation with IMRT recently.
Hopefully more knowledgeable people will pipe up.

M

I sure wish you well Pino, but sure can't give you any advice.

Re-radiation may be possible. There is a discussion of doing so at these links:

Re-irradiation of head and neck carcinoma
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/e...;list_uids=18846001&tool=MedlinePlus

Re-treatment after full-course radiotherapy: is it a viable option?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10606415?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=5&log$=relatedreviews&logdbfrom=pubmed

Re-irradiation of head and neck tumors. Benefits and toxicities.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10494516?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=4&log$=relatedreviews&logdbfrom=pubmed

(along side some of these articles are links to others studies on this subject)