Tinaelise,

Welcome to this site. As you've already started to find out, there's a great deal of helpful information here -- not only on this survivor/patient forum, but also in the many articles and other resources on the rest of the site.

I want to emphasize one of the points Candace mentioned in her post above -- with this type of diagnosis, I hope your mother is being seen at a comprehensive cancer center where she can get advice from specialists who deal with it on a regular basis. From what I read in your post, I'm not sure how they've determined for sure that it's Stage II, if she hasn't yet had the surgery (which would help them assess the primary site) or the PET scan (which would help search for any other metastasis).

Regarding your question about the amount of time it is taking -- I can tell you that in my case, my oral surgeon (who performed the initial biopsy) IMMEDIATELY contacted an oncologist to become the point person working with a tumor board at a major cancer center. Within the first couple of weeks after the biopsy, I had a series of scans to help the board decide on a course of treatment, and those scans were read and interpreted almost immediately. Approximately a month from the biopsy date, I had a partial glossectomy and neck dissection, followed by 3 1/2 months of radiation as soon as the surgery had healed sufficiently.

Cathy