I am so glad to have found this site and can't tell you how much all the information has helped me in just the last hour.
My mother had a tumor on the base of her upper jaw and was told it was metastatic - her uterine sarcoma had returned after 11 years. She was told to have a maxilectomy which she did one month ago. Prior to the surgery she was fitted for an obturator and told one would be in place after surgery and another available in a week or so with the final available some months away.
I asked the surgeon if there was a chance this was new oral cancer and he said, "this is absoltely her old cancer." He said it was localized to this particular area and they would remove it. The PET scan was negative, CT scan showed something on the opposite side of her neck that was an abcess from a wisdom tooth pulled two weeks prior to surgery (according to needle biopsy of that).
After surgery the doctor said it was an unusual case in that it was so different than the primary oral cancer he works with. He said they removed the tumor, margins were clear and put in the obturator and no further treatment was necessary.
It took more than 2 weeks to get pathology report back and now the doctors said the report shows it is scc. He said they should just keep an eye on it and that we should meet with their Tumor board to find out what they think. The Tumor board consisted of this doctor, his two residents, radiation doctor and chemo doctor. we were shocked with the radiologist said my mom should have another surgery to remove more "just in case" cells still exist and follow up with radiation and the chemo doctor said she should have chemo as well.
All of this is radically different than what we were originally told. The radiation and chemo were so "hard sell" I'm hesitant to believe them - especially when all the tests show it was just in this one area. My mom will be 70 in December. does any one go against the doctors' advice and recomendations - especially when so different from one week to the next?