Sherman........Congrats on kicking the nicotine habit! About the lump -- Mark is right, certainly go to an ENT and have the lumped looked at and possibly biopsied but don't worry about cancer until they give that diagnoses. There are soooo many things that lump could be. Two years after I finished treatment for tongue cancer, an x-ray spotted a dark shadow and spot on my right lung. SInce SSC takes it's route that way I thought for sure I was a goner, but I wasn't. I had walking pneumonia and that was easily treated. Moral of the story: Don't worry until you have to, it doesn't do any good. Sincerely, Donna