Welcome to the world of survivorship....always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Statistics can be scary, but remember that statistics can be interpreted in many ways. Some things you might think about: The population of people from whom the statistics are drawn include many older individuals. The are more frail and it is harder for someone in their 70's for instance, to beat things than a physically stronger 40 year old. There is the issue of your immune system which becomes progressively more incompetent as you age. People in those statistics (75% of them) smoked most of their lives, and have a worse go of survival than others who did not smoke. You didn't mention your age, or overall health, so what I have said may not be completely applicable. So if you think about yourself in relationship to the population of people in the statistical analysis, perhaps you have a much better chance of being in the group that is still on this side of the grass after five years. Don't get caught up in the numbers. You are a living, unique, biological entity, not the sum of a bunch of numbers. Even if you were on the bad side of all this, (late diagnosis and high staging, very old, other systemic diseases, etc.) I know many in that group that have beaten the statistics.......

For all of us the challange is to put our brush with this killer in perspective, and try to live normal full lives, free from anxiety and worry. By the way, a qualified ENT should be able to handle your exams, and an oncologist may not be necessary. Just get the proper battery of tests every year, and have them read by competent people.