Jeff,
if you are fortunate in that the biopsy does indeed come back negative QUIT SMOKING NOW! Or inevitably you might be be joining our little club (as others have said - "the one that nobody wants to join" Danny Boy liked that one - he finally got to quit - he died, the rest of us are stuck in this purgatory). Tobacco products are implicated in about 80% of oral cancer cases. It's a tough wake up call.

I applaud your courage in stepping up and getting to the heart of it so quickly.

As Gary says, it goes sorta like The Eagles with Hotel California; "you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave".

Bill D.

My biopsy of top of the mouth nodule removal results:
Negative for SCC. Pyogenic Granuloma, so it seems.

My biopsy doctors mother died on day of biopsy (TUE last week) and he just got back today (TUE) and was in surgery when I phoned (a week later about the results).

I was a little bit curt with his nurse, having to call THEM a week later about the results, having to hang around the phone all the time as this doctor will not leave a phone msg.

She assured me that whatever early stage of cancer I may have had...those 4 days wouldn't have meant much.
She's probably right. I suppose.

From me being a newcomer and reading all your posts...you all taught me to be somewhat an aggressor.

Is it wrong for me to want to schedule another complete thorough ENT exam? Including a complete review of that roof of mouth area by a personal ENT and not a UCSD one? Another biopsy and complete cut out and stitch up of that pyogenic granuloma?

Last and most important, I've never been so humbled and honored to be among you all.
I've contributed nothing here except for my upcoming donation and my good luck.

I've got my work to do. Smoking a pack a day and often drinking to excess.

I quit drinking for a full 10 days and didn't even miss alcohol..then, I relapsed somewhat. Under pressure (within and from without).

I'm looking into 2 crutches (besides will power).
One drug takes the high you get from drinking.
The other drug takes out the absorbtion of nicotine.

These problems of mine don't hold a candle next to the flame of courage and love of those going thru treatment..and those around them, helping..and those that have been there.

If you are in the San Diego area and need any kind of transport or whatever...have Jeffdc will travel.

Before you all discount me as a newb, I tended to my father who died of prostate cancer 1+ years ago.

I set up in care service (she didn't know how to cook an egg)... to changing his sheets and his diapers and coaxing my dad to drink Ensure.

I thought nothing of this duty...as my dad had done the same for me as an infant.

I may not have that favor when I need that kind of care.

Anyone here in San Diego who has noone...how does one help?

Jeff,

Just for your information, my husband used to smoke about 3 packs of cigarettes per day. He quit on 9/5/06, and was diagnosed with cancer on 9/12/06. He already did have the painful sore on this tongue when he quit. He also quit drinking about 20 years ago and he used to do a lot of that too. His oncologist told us that 95% of head and neck cancer victims smoked

The numbers that I have seen are that 25% of H&N cancer patients NEVER drank or smoked so where the doctor got that number is beyond me (maybe that's in his personal experience). Maybe Brian has something to share on this. HPV has fairly recently been cited as a causitive factor as well.

Straight from the NCI:

"Oral Cancer: Who's at Risk?

Doctors cannot always explain why one person develops oral cancer and another does not. However, we do know that this disease is not contagious. You cannot "catch" oral cancer from another person.

Research has shown that people with certain risk factors are more likely than others to develop oral cancer. A risk factor is anything that increases your chance of developing a disease.

The following are risk factors for oral cancer:

Tobacco: Tobacco use accounts for most oral cancers. Smoking cigarettes, cigars, or pipes; using chewing tobacco; and dipping snuff are all linked to oral cancer. The use of other tobacco products (such as bidis and kreteks) may also increase the risk of oral cancer. Heavy smokers who use tobacco for a long time are most at risk. The risk is even higher for tobacco users who drink alcohol heavily. In fact, three out of four oral cancers occur in people who use alcohol, tobacco, or both alcohol and tobacco.
Alcohol: People who drink alcohol are more likely to develop oral cancer than people who don't drink. The risk increases with the amount of alcohol that a person consumes. The risk increases even more if the person both drinks alcohol and uses tobacco."

You did notice the "3 out of 4"...

Gary is right on the 75%, that comes from a peer-reviewed article by Mashberg et al. Although I think that given that decade old article and what we know about the emerging new HPV etiology, that number is due for revision. Incidence of oral cancer in the US will increase 11% this year alone. Given that tobacco use in the US has declined every year for the last ten years, there has to be a replacement cause keeping the number consistent for that period of time, and actually increasing it this year. HPV16 is going to fill that slot. And Gary is right, cancer is not contagious, but a virus that can cause it can be easily transferred from one person to another. Familial histories which might lead a person to believe in a heredity link to some disease processes, when looked at carefully, can reveal that a family that shares similar genes, also shares similar poor lifestyle choices in diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol use, and as discussed below lack of involvement with healthcare professionals.

Tobacco continues to be a factor for more than a decade after cessation, but studies into this that are finite in terms of when that damage might be mitigated do not exist. Anecdotally, treating docs that I work with frequently say to me that a person that was a multi pack a day smoker, even two decades past, is still at risk. This comes from their clinical experiences, not from published articles. The issue of alcohol and tobacco acting synergistically is well established. The alcohol thins the cell wall membranes of the mouth allowing the easier access of the combustion by-product carcinogens to the cell. Alcohol in high quantities can be a risk factor all on its own in non-smokers.

What you have to be careful of, and many studies do not consider well, are things that create a bias in the data. For instance, think about these potential skewing factors to a study. People that smoke often engage in other risk factors. This is a lifestyle issue. Public health studies show that smokers have an education disadvantage when you look at them as a whole. That doesn

Early detection of Oral Cancer...it needs more public awareness.

Maybe the issue below belongs elsewhere in this forum. It needs a congressional hearing if you ask me.

Advances in cancer-fighting medicine and technology have resulted in increasing numbers of cancer survivors. At the same time, an aging and significantly large population of baby boomers will mean an increase in cancer diagnoses as this pivotal group passes 65, the age at which cancer rates spike. Add to the mix a slowing growth in the supply of oncologists, and according to the authors of the study, the result is a drastic shortage of oncologists by 2020, just as cancer rates in the country are expected to soar.

Even current figures are worrisome. There are about 10,400 oncologists in the United States today with roughly 500 new ones entering the workforce each year. Yet, an estimated 1.4 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in 2007. Looking ahead, the study predicts a 48 percent jump in cancer incidence and an 81 percent increase in Americans living with or surviving cancer in the years leading up to 2020. But the crunch might be felt even earlier as oncologist caseloads rise. "It will likely get tougher to get an appointment with an oncologist over the next few years," predicts one of the study's authors, Edward Salsberg, director of the Center for Workforce Studies at the Association of American Medical Colleges, which conducted the study.

If a boomer does manage to get penciled in, they still may not have much cause for celebration. "The medical oncologist of the future might be more of a team leader," says Michael Goldstein, chair of the ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) Workforce in Oncology Task Force and an oncologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "There will be less face-to-face time with a single patient." Once a patient is treated, she will be more likely to be seen by a primary-care physician and less likely to receive follow-up care from an oncologist, who would need to focus on urgent or new cases, not continued care. It's a potential trend that has only 15 percent of surveyed oncologists convinced it might alleviate the shortage. Study author Salsberg suggests this might be due to the fact that "many oncologists have already heard that there will be a shortage in primary-care doctors as well, or it's because cancer care has gotten so complicated that you really do need to be seen by a specialist."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17599898/site/newsweek/?from=rss

The problem with doctors (my sister is one...) is that most are suffering from tunnel vision. They aren't focused on the total package... I believe this is a result of the "specialized" tag most seem to pursue after medical school.

My mom's jaw was giving her pain for over a year before her diagnosis. Her GP attributed the pain to her arthritis and prescribed pain meds. In November of 2005, she went to the dentist (he noticed nothing). Throughout December of that year, she went through several tests to determine if she could handle a hernia repair operation.
This testing uncovered a corated artery which was repaired in January. Again, the T4 cancer lurking in her mouth remained undiscovered.

In Feb of last year, she went to see her GP because the top of her mouth was sore. He prescribed her an anti-biotic (which did nothing) making the mistaken assumption that the tubes put down my mom

When you suspect some growth in your mouth, it is important that you seek medical care at once to see what the problem is. Whether you see a general dentist, a maxillofacial surgeon, a familly physician or an ENT, they MUST come to a diagnosis. Remember that a general dentist can easily obtain a biospy and get the pathology report within a week. You do not need to have an ENT to do this. Also, some physicians are not trained to indentify oral lesions readily so do not take their words for granted. I am not saying this because I am in the dental profession but because of our training in the oral cavity, we know what is normal and what is not. In my career, I came across a case in which the patient has large lesion on his left side of the tounge. His physician told him that his lesion was due to a sharp tooth in the mouth and the tooth should be either removed or capped to remove irritation. When he came to see me to have his tooth removed, it was obvious that it is a SCCA of the tounge and the biopsy turned out that it is. My point is to not to rule out dentists when comes to oral cancer diagnosis. Use all professionals to get your answers. If someone you see can't give you a diagnosis (either DDS or MD), then ask for someone else who can. If I choose one person to diagnose my oral lesion, there is no other than Oral Pathologist (a dental specialty). You may have to go to a dental school to find them as most are in academia. DP