OK so he's an experienced guy that has seen a lot and is really knowledgeable. Having said that, no one can, with the naked eye, tell you what is dangerous and what is not, not the best oncologist in the world. Only the guy with the microscope can do that. It could be just residual irritation from the post treatment issues that you likely have, or something else. A month is too long I think. Dysplasia can be high grade (very risky) or low grade - dangerous but not going to convert tomorrow or perhaps even ever. Just to be clear - dysplasia is the point between "I'm a normal cell, and I'm a malignant cell" so in cervical cancer the reason that they have made such huge progress against the death rate of the disease is because GYN's remove ALL dysplasia, and they do not "wait and watch" which posters here will tell you sometimes lets things prosper into something really bad. So given your history, and that previous oral cancer patients have the highest risk of transformation of dysplasia to convert to the dark side, the PET is a good idea. Just remember that a PET is not specific for cancer, and what you learn from it may or may not be helpful. I guess my question would be given that a biopsy is a no big deal (especially with what you have been through already), why not just do the simple procedure and let the pathologist give you a black and white, gold standard answer this week? What's the down side? Of course this has to be done after your scheduled PET or it will screw up the scan.


Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.