Hi Lisa. First take a deep breath. I was exactly in your shoes 1 year ago today. My husband was diagnosed 1-13-09 with Stage IV "base of tongue" cancer. The ONLY symptom my husband had was a non-painful lump in his neck. That turned out to be a 4cm malignant lymph node. He had a CT Scan which showed thickening tissue at the base of his tongue. The tumor in the base of tongue was the primary. I drove myself crazy "googling" long term survival stats. I lost my mom 2 years ago to Pancreatic Cancer so I unfortunately have been down the cancer road before. Don't drive yourself crazy with the doom and gloom stats. Your husband is a statistic of 1 and there are plenty of people who beat this cancer.

I won't lie to you, both you as the caregiver and your husband are in for a rough journey but this cancer is treatable and cureable. My husband went through 35 daily radiation treatments, 6 weeks of chemo, neck disection and had to have a feeding tube (PEG) placed before treatment began. He is alive, cancer free and doing really well. Please feel to ask any and all questions. You have found a great group of patients and caregivers who are more than willing to help and a wealth of information.

My husband never smoked a day in his life, drank casually, took vitamins every day and ate a well balanced diet.

Good news is that your husband seems to have doctors that are on top of things and got his tests right away. My husband's three doctors - the MO (Medical Oncologist), RO (Radiation Oncologist) and ENT all told him that this cancer has the most brutal treatment out there but we can beat this and cure you. Keep posting and asking questions.