Hi TeeJay,

Sorry to hear about the recurrance. It's the thing we all dread with SCC. I had a selective neck dissection in Feb of this year. I had nodal involvement and the team at Hopkins felt it best to get them out prior to chemo and rads. The same thing happened when they went in as the tumors were quite aggressive. The surgery was a lot more involved as the tumors had wrapped themselves around the nerves, muscles and blood vessels in my neck. They took an additional 24 nodes. Fortunately they were able to get it all and the subsequent treatment was more of a mop up operation.

My post Tx PET last week (8-6) was clean. With the carpet bomb approach of chemorads, the outcome is quite favorable and typically the 1st PET after treatment is favorable too.

Obviously they'll be keeping a close eye on you for a while. I know it's hard but try not to worry too much. The reality is, there's little we can do anyway but keep a positive outlook and hope for the best. Ask about follow-ups and additional scopes/scans etc. I'll be seeing my team every 3 months for the next two years. No further scans are planned unless they see something suspicious but I'll be scoped every time.

Positive thoughts and prayers,

"T"