Hi Teejay,
So: Jan 2010 - dx cancer and surgery only. Jan 2013 - dx cancer and RND on right neck for cancer in March 2013 followed by chemo/rads. Now, scheduled for your first PET end of Sept. 2013. Correct?

You did not specify location of primary tumor. Nearly always the lymph nodes are not the primary location in HNC but often cancer metastasizes TO the nodes. Where is the primary?


All you can do is be patient as you can until the scan results come back. But you know better than I, those early scans can be just fine yet cancer can roar back in the coming years.

There really is nothing I have ever heard that a survivor can DO to make it stay away and never come back. Again, you are a first hand survivor so you know the feeling being a cancer patient who lives with the uncertainty of a recurrence.

All my research supports the fact that recurrence occurs nearly always in the first two years post tx. Unfortunately, you were right on the end of the "danger zone" so to speak. Another 6-12 months, chances are much slimmer for recurrence to appear.

That said, you have more treatment this go around, especially radiation which is very good at really KILLING the cancer locally. The chemo offered during radiation is generally done as a radiosynthesizer to make the radiation work better. It's not clear to me what was used to treat the primary unless it was in the neck as well and nowhere else in which case it is pretty unusual for HNC to be located only there.

Anyway, hang here and you will get great information, advise, and support. Best to you, don