Hi Pepper, My situation is almost like yours. I had 2 surgeries, a piece of tongue removed (around 15%) and my doc made what he calls primmary closure, to close the tongue with the tip of it. I get free margins, no perineural invasion and nodes free. No reconstruction. No rads or chemo.

My tumour size and no nodes made me stage one and hope to keep in this stage and cancer free forever!

Googd luck on your recovery smile

December, 2011 - T1N0M0 SSC Oral Tongue sugery (Dec 07, 2011). Partial glossectomy, primary closure. Selective Neck dissection, all 57 nodes free. 29 at diagnosis, no risk factors at all. No smoking, drinking and HPV negative. Can you explain? I can't.