Hi... I have to be honest with you those of us who are here who have no precursors for this disease (and sadly there are a lot of us), don't know what has caused it. I am one of them. Now I must say that the second ENT who looked at me said I may have leukoplakia - the specific name he didn't give and most importantly it didn't matter at that point as it was SCC by that time and needed to be treated. Leukoplakia seems to be a common factor for some of us, and also chronic irritation.

Regardless of all of that it needs to be treated like the cancer it is. It sounds to me like you had a pretty extensive surgery, which can be daunting - there are a few people here who've had the same surgery. Usually (I'm sure you've done your homework here) surgery is the first line of treatment then depending on the circumstances there is often a follow up with rads and chemo. As extensive as your cancer sounded - I am wondering of they also did a neck dissection as this is usually the next stop for the cancer after the mouth/oral cavity..

If so it's a good thing. If not I imagine they are doing one this time out. This being a recurrence I would also be wondering if they are considering rads and chemo?

hugs and welcome.