Kelleyann --

My husband's initial biopsy showed "moderate dysplasia" -- somewhat abnormal cells, but not cancer -- but the pathology report, by a lab that does only oral evaluations, warned of a possible "skip effect," meaning that cancer cells could be in an area that was not part of the biopsy. A full excisional biopsy did indeed show SCC -- fortunately in its very beginning stage.

Can you have your slides evaluated by a lab that deals primarily with oral pathology? I recall several instances on these boards of cancer being picked up only after the slides were seen by pathologists who deal mainly with oral cancers, since they know what they are looking for and can recognize anomalies far more quickly and easily than pathologists who don't see this very much.

The American Academy of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology has a list of its member labs on its website. You may want to consider such a "second opinion," if only for your own peace of mind. If it's nothing, that's great. If it's something, it's caught early.

All the best,
Leslie