Thanks everyone. I wasn't very clear about what the surgery would involve. I can decline the surgery if I want and I know there have been patients in this clinical trial that have declined the surgery.

From what I have been told, it is not a traditional neck dissection in any form (radical, modified, or selective). They use the term nodulectomy. The side effects would be very minimal if any as only a small area would be cut. There are of course risks with any surgery, which are important to consider. It would likely be a ~1 inch incision and would only remove the 1 lymph node (or whatever remains of it now) that was cancerous. I think the idea is to ensure there aren't any random cancerous cells remaining in that tissue. I will ensure I get more details once I hear more information on their recommendations as these details are from my memory when I signed up for the clinical trial.

In any circumstance in life, I'd prefer to not have surgery if I could avoid it. I went with a clinical trial that reduced radiation dose to my neck, so its not clear to me that there is no reason to at least check for cancer in the node. I'm very happy with how quickly I bounced back and recovered. It's hard to say if that had more to do with the reduced dose of radiation, my age or maybe just luck. I can't draw much of a conclusion with a sample size of one.

Rosy, I am hoping for the best for you when you get scanned. It sounds like things are going well for you in recovery. Hope everything continues to improve.