I'm new to the forum and posted this in other areas, but now realize it prob belongs here.
My wife has low grade MEC primary base of tongue. Treated w/ radiation and cisplatin 2 years ago at our local CCC. Primary is "dead" now. Most recent CT showed two growing nodes on one side of her neck, so her doctor recommends modified radical neck dissection. Her doctor is a well-known ENT cancer surgeon who left his position after 20+ years at a major academic medical center a few years ago for private hospital in same city. His new hospital does not have a comprehensive cancer center. So we wonder how important that would be for post-operative care after the neck dissection. We could go to a comp cancer center, but we don't know the surgeons there, and her rad onc says this surgeon is better than all of them (we trust him completely). Are there commonly severe difficulties after the neck dissection that would be important to have the resources of a CCC? We can use the CCC near us for her rehab, but would go back to the surgeon for any complications from the surgery.
I'm under the impression that it will not be as bad as 6 weeks of radiation and chemo, but maybe I'm trying to find a silver lining here.
Thanks to all.