Hi Brick

what a lot of questions lol.Rob had a 4cm node in his neck which was fine needle biopsied first.An appointment was then made for a biopsy under anaesthetic of his tongue ulcer which was on the opposite side to his lymph node.The needle biopsy came back as metastic SCC which we were told just as he was going to theatre for the tongue biopsy so we knew for sure he had oral cancer before the primary was identified.The primary on the tongue was much smaller at 1cm so he was staged at T1 N2 M0 as he had no spread at that time to other areas.David then told me that as he had a secondary lymph node of a fair size this would stage him at 3/4.The numbers are measured by the size of the tumour.The stage ,by the spread.The M part denotes spread outside the oral cavity,like lungs,brain,bones ecetera so i guess if they find the problem in the vertebra is metastic then size will finish the puzzle.

All this information will then be presented to a tumour board made up of several experts,and between them they will decide what course of treatment to recommend.This could be chemo first followed by rads and surgery,or surgery,rads/chemo combined or just rads and chemo,that cant be discussed till all the pathology is in.

Pet scans are out of my field as they are not widely used in the UK, MRI and CAT scans being the tool of choice here.

Sounds as if you are on the case big time so all thats left to say is good luck to you both.

love liz