Hi everyone :

My brother is scheduled to do a neck dissection on Monday, July 14th. We were supposed to get a second opinion Last week but he was gushing blood from his tongue and he had to do another surgery to caterize his tongue. We haven't got in with another doctor and his doctor that did the surgery is out of town. They can not release the pathology report to us until he comes back in town. My brother is worried about the neck dissection and worried that if he takes out the lymph nodes then he will constantly get sick and be weak. Does this happen? Are the lymph nodes real important? Will his life be affected by removing 28 nodes?

I had a neck dissection in dec 2012 before getting radiation to same area jan to march neck dissection was relatively easy don't even look like frankystein haven't been sick since recovery in April I had a dozen lymph nodes removed one was infected another partly haven't heard of many getting sick because of lack of nodes good luck ken

Kris had an initial right modified neck dissection. 6 months later he had bilateral radical neck dissection.
He has not been sick at all in the last 30 months.
Your brother need not worry.

As it was explained to me, there are so many other nodes in the body that removing a portion of them won't do any harm, i.e. the others take over. I had all the nodes on the left side of my neck removed 5 years ago and if anything I've been healthier (from an infection point of view) since than I was before. Please keep us updated on your brother's progress. I see the surgery was scheduled for yesterday, we'd all love to hear how he's doing.

Sending good vibes your way!

Just to Mention, add, there are over 600 lymph nodes in the body, over 300 in the cervical neck, most microscopic. No one has the same amount or in the same locations. Even after my radical neck dissection, level ll-V, and subsequent neck dissections they still removed some lymph nodes each time.

Good luck.

Very interesting fact so many lymph nodes in the neck. Every diagnosis and patient dictate a unique treatment but I am most weary of the "surgery only" option. In most cases, with good margins, and low staging, I understand the approach.

BUT, cancer is a bastard and evil and sneaky. With that many nodes, it just seems like a cancer cell can hide anywhere and later attack.

Basing diagnosis on FNA of nodes is another question mark. With so many, how on earth can they really know which ones have cancer? They can't so neck dissection seems very much an educated guess rather than fully science and diagnostic based.

Personally, I'd think really hard about getting some chemo with any surgery only procedure. Just seems like well worth the suffering to improve the mopping up of any stray undetected and hiding cancers.

Don, that seems logical. Although whether to do that mopping with chemo or radiation is another question, best left up to the docs I'm sure. Maybe diagnosis and treatment have come a long way since I was diagnosed 5 years ago, but at the time both my oncologists said that I needed the rads to take care of any stray cells. Would be interesting to speak to those docs about whether they'd make the same decision today, suppose they would.... except my MO has retired.

Oh and my first FNA - of a node the size of a walnut - came back negative, which I gather isn't all that unusual.

Your lymphatic system runs parallel to your circulatory system, it runs thorough your entire body, and there are many nodes!!! This is why stopping the cancer from getting there is important because once it reaches the nodes it has an easy transport system to the rest of the body.

This is why I'm an advocate for neck dissections and surgery (for NON HPV related oral cancers) and follow up radiation if the staging and invasiveness suggests it.

Cancer can be very tricky!!! Hugs

Martin had a modified neck dissection and they took lymph nodes out. He catches more colds. But we also have a 3 year old who carries lots of germs collected at nursery, so I think more than the lack of lymph nodes, my daughter is the main cause of colds. He hasn't had anything serious otherwise. The GP put him on the "vulnerable" list so he gets the flu jab every year. Maybe that helps too.