Ak123, I had one of the carotid arteries, there are several, involved with cancer back in 2011. It was scraped off, and alloderm was placed on it to protect it, which the surgeon said he would have done a pec flap since I was originally just planned for a MRND, but had a radical instead. Then another surgery for cancer, different hospital, ENT had to take the alloderm off, and pec flap was placed, so I could have more radiation. It may not be necessary to remove any as the CT, MRI does not always show the exact involvement with all the inflammation, fibrosis that can mimicking carotid involvement when there is none, and if it's not wrapped around more than 160 degrees, I believe, they may not remove, just scape off, and there may be different risks depending on what's involved, the common, internal, external carotid artery or one if its branches.

Here is an article that may be helpful.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/850738-overview