Guys, this really didn't advance our knowledge much. People with recurrences do more poorly than those that don't, we already knew that. Since the bulk of people who go through treatment have had radiation, that tool is most of the time out of the question, we already knew that. This is comparing people that had a recurrence and essentially did nothing� or perhaps went on chemo for palliative care, and people who aggressively were willing to salvage the situation through what many times was extensive surgical intervention ( something that many patients particularly of an older age often decline because of the qol afterwards). So it is no surprise that those that did nothing and let the cancer progress did more poorly. I don't see how this moved the ball down the field very much from where our knowledge already was. What Carole's presentation did point out was that in the past doctors were reluctant to be treatment aggressive in their recommendations to patients in recurrence. This should give them some pause for thought about that. If the doctor and a patient are willing to take the leap, there are better outcomes and longer life spans�. in HPV patients in particular.



Last edited by Brian Hill; 02-26-2014 09:26 AM.

Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.