Hi to all,
This is my first post and thank god for this forum. I actually understood some of what the doctor was saying today. This is about my husband who was at the dentist for a routine cleaning and they noticed something on the floor of his mouth. He never knew it was there and no symptoms. He went back 3 weeks later and it was still there. Then we were off to the oral surgeon, and waited 2 more weeks,still there, and finally he had a biopsy. It came back as moderate to severe dysplasia which he said is pre cancerous and he recommended surgery with a little skin graft. Now it is a week later and today he said it was carcinoma-in-situ. Our next step is a cancer center on Monday to meet the doctor. They want to do a scope,the same day as his surgery probably because of family history, and he is also a smoker and drinker. They said it was unusual to see this in a 41 year old. We really like the oral surgeon and trust his opinion, but going to a good cancer center is about the best second opinion you can get correct? Also, I was wondering if anyone ever had something similar and it ended up being different pathology reports after the full removal? I am so afraid of what they are going to find. The doctor did say that after it is removed, we should be all set with no other treatment. His pathology report says moderate to severe koilocytic dysplasia, and possible carcinoma-in-situ. Was wondering also if anyone had a floor of the mouth surgery with a skin graft and how long it took to heal.
Thanks for listening!

As you can see from my signature, my husband's case was similar. The initial biopsy of a leukoplakia (a white patch on his tongue) showed moderate dysplasia, but the pathology report, by a lab that does only oral pathology, also warned of a "skip effect," meaning that there could be cancer in an area that was not in the biopsy sample. By the time the leukoplakia was totally removed in an excisional biopsy a month later, the diagnosis was SCC in situ.

The excisional biopsy was done by a local ENT who was referred by the oral surgeon who did the initial biopsy. We did not seek out a cancer specialist at that time since cancer had not been diagnosed. Once it was, my husband was re-examined by a cancer specialist at Johns Hopkins, about an hour away.

We were lucky: No further treatment has been required. The dentist examines my husband with a VELscope every six months, and he also is checked regularly by the local ENT and the Hopkins specialist.

His was on the side/lower part of his mobile tongue near where it meets the floor of the mouth, and he did not require any grafts.

Keep posting and reading -- the people here have seen it all.

It heals amazingly fast. Faster than the area that they take the graft from. The discomfort is a real Pain ( sorry about that) as it mucks with eating, drinking anything acidic like orange juice. But you had good calls from all the profesionals that you saw, and I have to tell you that is really an anomaly on these boards. Too many people get misdiagnosed, get caught in the watched and wait syndrome, or worse. Now you know you have something that has the ability to come back at ay time, and that VELscope every six moth should be something that you do not ever miss. Once this gets going, it can run like wild fire.

If you would drop me a note re the contact information for the docs that found this, made the calls of what to do, etc. I would like to write them a letter of praise from OCF, and put them on our lifesavers list.

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/dental/lifesavers.htm

Thanks Leslie, I do remember reading a lot of your posts and it seemed like your story was similar to what my husband is going through. Thanks!

Hi Brian.
I really feel lucky that everything was diagnosed so early, and that is how we stay positive. It is kind of interesting, we only have medical insurance, and no dental for the first time in our lives and have always went to our appointments every 6 months. This was the first one we had to pay for, and we even had the thought of skipping this one.
I know the biopsy was painfull enough, so I guess we should expect twice as bad. We are just hoping the scope test goes well.(that is what he is worried about)
I will get you that information.
Thank you Brian.