Tammy, I had a modified radical neck dissection after chemo and radiation treatment. I presume Dave had rad and chemo at the same time (cisplatin?) and is now being given the option of having the neck dissection or skipping it. I had the same option, but my doctors all recommended doing the dissection to be sure that all of the cancer from this round was destroyed and removed. The only way to find out if it is destroyed is to remove the lymph nodes and biopsy them. I was lucky and mine came back NO CANCER. The best news I had had in a year or more. However, the thought that made me decide for sure to have the surgery was that I didn't ever want to look back and say "If only I had had the surgery, I might not have gotten this back". I know I will never ask that question because I had it all removed and if I have a recurrance I know it is from a new source, not the same tumor I had already treated.

I hope, regardless of your decision, that Dave doesn't have a problem further out. By the way, I am one year out from rad/chemo treatment and only have to go to the doctors once every 6 months. I think part of the reason is that I had the surgery and they don't need to look at me as frequently due to a lowered risk of recurrance.

The surgery itself was not a big deal at all. In fact, it was a lot less of a problem than the radiation. Given everything, I would have the surgery again without question even if I knew the nodes were clear. I just wouldn't want to leave something in my body that I know had been full of cancer cells, even if I knew all of the cells had been killed off. I wanted that filthy thing out of my body. Good luck with your decision.