Diagnosis stage 4a squamous cell carcinoma. I am HPV positive, they tell me it's a good thing.
Off to Moffitt today to hear their song and dance.
Anybody know anything about this Tomotherapy radiation?

Yes, it's a good thing being HPV-16 positive in the oropharynx, which usually responds better to treatment, and has better prognostics all across the board. If you smoked, you can be at risk of a more aggressive HPV sub type that behaves more like non HPV, but that may depend on the number of pack years smoked, and deescalation of treatments may not be advised then.

Tomotherapy is a form of IMRT with CT imaging that radiates slice by slice around the patient in a CT like machine, which may be more conformal, have less side effects, take less time to radiate than IMRT. It's usually good for moving tumors such as in the lungs, and tumors close to vital structures like the brain stem, whereby a CT scan is taken each time before treatment, conforms to the tumor as it gets smaller as opposed to IMRT that usually takes one CT before treatment in a separate machine. A few here had Tomotherapy, and posted a topics on the subject if you look under the search feature, but I haven't seen much about Tomotherapy in recent years vs IMRT, maybe due to Proton Therapy being more readily availability, and more targeted, and then there is IMGT, Image Guided Radiation Therapy too.

You've already heard about Moffitt, and 2nd what was said about Dr. Harrison.

Good luck

Hi Ward. I just finished treatment yesterday at Moffitt in Tampa. Great facility and everyone there was excellent to work with. I had the same stuff you've got but at the right base of tongue, right lymph node in neck.

The radiation treatment only takes about 10 minutes, then you are free to go about your day, but as the weeks drag on, you'll feel like crap, the radiation is cumulative and your throat is going to get more sore with every treatment. If you like to eat Mexican, Italian, Indian or any other 'Good' food, (and beer) do it NOW! Once your throat/tongue start hurting, you're going to be drinking milkshakes.

I've lost about 20 lbs and I wasn't fat to begin with, but it just hurts so much to swallow, or even chew, about the only 'real food' I'm eating is macaroni and cheese and cheese omelettes. Also buy a lot of water bottles, the dry mouth will keep you up all night. I keep a Yeti cup of ice water next to my bed to sip on all night.

Good luck, I was lucky and didn't have to also do the chemo therapy, just radiation. I hope it works, I guess I'll know in a few months.