Hello All,
I'm thrilled to have found this forum this evening.

My Dad was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer (SSC, BOT) in January of 2006. He was just diagnosed today with a recurrence- stage 1-2, SCC in same area.

He has been given two options- surgery or nothing. Surgery has some serious quality of life issues attached to it (trach and feeding tube, speech concerns, etc).

No surgery has obvious issues, with life-threatening symptoms likely to occur within 6 months to a year. Physically he feels fine now (a non-healing sore throat is what led him to seek medical help) but emotionally he is a mess.

My first question is, where do you advise we seek a second opinion?

My second question is where do you suggest I find a resource for him of people like him that had to make this decision. He'd like to hear from someone who has been in his shoes to see how they decided what to do.

We are in Columbus, Ohio at the James Cancer Hospital at OSU. His SO suggested Case, Cleveland, UofM and Pittsburgh for second opinions. I have blindly surfed three of those sites and found people that seem most qualified but a personal rec from someone other than his SO would be awesome.

Thanks in advance for your time and any advice you can send my way. I have 3 little kids and I hate to see them lose their grandfather, more than I hate to see me lose my Dad. We love that guy.
Jenni