All,

It's been about a week since my surgery (hemi-glossectomy & SND) and my doctor has been out sick. So, had to send me an email with the pathology results. I'm not really sure what to make of it, but I thought I would update everyone and see if there's any feedback. I should know more later this week when I can meet with him.

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Your pathology report showed the following:
1. The tongue cancer resection showed clear margins with NO perineural invasion. The tumor was 2.5 cm in greatest dimension making the tumor a small T2 stage. The clear margins and the absence of perineural invasion is exactly what we wanted to see.
2. The neck dissection showed that out 58 lymph nodes removed, 4 nodes had small deposits of cancer. This is a clear indication for postoperative radiation therapy. Unfortunately, the pathologist also noted that even though the tumor deposits were very small, the tumor in one of the nodes was just starting to get out of the node. This brings the potential for chemotherapy into the discussion.

I'll have a copy of the report printed up for you and we'll discuss the next steps later this week.
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Thanks,
Gina