I have a friend on Facebook and we became friends thru both of her and I having oral tongue cancer, she had a PET scan in late September and has a team of doctors, ENT and Oncologist and I think an oral surgeon. They all got together on a "tumor board" (meeting?) Her PET scan came out clear and she was diagnosed with tongue cancer in early September, just as I was. She had the neck dissection, at their advice, to treat it aggressively, just as my 2nd ENT wanted to do, and remove some lymph nodes (not sure how they determine which are clear and which are cancerous, so they know which ones to remove and which ones to keep once they open your neck?) Well, my friend was in the hospital for one week (the second ENT I went said I would be in the hospital 2 or 3 days), and posted pictures of her post surgery in the hospital with "Warning Graphic Pictures" at the top.
She was released today and her post on Facebook says: " I was released from the hospital today, but unfortunately the biopsy results were not what we hoped for. Two lymph nodes in my neck were cancerous, so chemo and radiation is in my future shall I decide the direction I want to take. I am devastated."

Now I am really more confused as the ENT (#2) insisted a selective neck dissection would be the best treatment, like it was a miracle cure to stop the cancer from invading my body should it ever return! She had a PET scan about 3 or 4 weeks ago that was "clear" and now they do surgery to remove them and they are cancerous.
Can anyone explain this why the surgery did not take care of removing the "pathways" to block the return the cancer?? Thank you for all your help and sharing your knowledge with me !!