I had a conversation on the phone with my ENT after my last post here yesterday and it's clear I need to talk to the rad. oncologist here who said he didn't think I needed radiation. It turns out he did get opinions from the oral cancer team at Roswell Park in Buffalo (one of the NCI cancer centers). I think I mentioned that our hospital's cancer treatment center is affiliated with them.

Anyway, it turns out the opinions on my case at Roswell Park were 50% in favor of radiation and 50% against, which kind of confirms the sense I've gotten reading here about people with Stage II Tongue cancer that some have had radiation and some haven't. If I'm wrong on that take, or if more of those folks who didn't get it later had reoccurences, I'd be interested in hearing from people here about that.

My ENT said I should ask about pros and cons when I get to Farber no matter what the rad.oncologist recommends. I should ask about whether they have collected data showing less likelihood of reoccurence in Stage II. I should also ask, regardless of what is recommended, if that is based on a protocol they have that they use with everyone and if there is research supporting that protocol.

I don't intend to make my decision based on my fear of the treatment. Thanks to reading here,I can see people survive the treatment and eventually can even sing again. But I am concerned that radiation is this big gun you get to use once and if I use it now and then have a recooccurence in some inoperable place, I'm really SOL, right?

I understand a recoourence is bad news and so the argument can be made that one should do absolutely everything to get it the first time. But I guess I have enough of the empiricist in me (a Ph.D. in experimental psychology) that I want to know that radiation by itself improves the odds of not having a reoccurence. Because otherwise, it seems like it would be better to keep it as a possible treatment for IF a reoccurence should happen.

Am I asking about this in the right place here? Perhaps I should take this discussion to the area for discussing treatment?

Nelie

SCC(T2N0M0) part.glossectomy & neck dissect 2/9/05 & 2/25/05.33 IMRT(66 Gy),2 Cisplatin ended 06/03/05.Stage I breast cancer treated 2/05-11/05.Surgery to remove esophageal stricture 07/06, still having dilatations to keep esophagus open.Dysphagia. "When you're going through hell, keep going"