Hello everyone,
First off, thank you to the hosts of this web site, the information resources here, and best of all, the forum for patients are relatives.

I'm not a patient. I'm a brother to my elder sister, who just got diagnosed with oral cancer. It's on her tongue, on the right side.
She doesn't have insurance, so she was complaining about tongue sore for a couple weeks and trying out different in-home remedies, before seeking out a dentist. The dentist prescribed amoxy for a week, but that didn't work. So she went to a general practitioner, who recommended seeing a specialist. The specialist right away said it's cancerous and recommended biopsy. My sister was taken aback...no other possibilities, she thought? The next day, she got the biopsy, came back positive. So about a month later after she was complaining about her tongue, it's confirmed she has cancer.

She is 44, never smoked or chewed tobacco in her life, nor does she drink alcohol. She is not HPV positive either. This seems so totally random. And worst of all, to be stricken when she was laid off and thus without health insurance briefly.

Then the specialist recommended CT scan. So got that done. The report says it's a "well marginated tumor in the right lateral aspect of the tongue which measures 1.5 x 2.8 cm in transverse dimension. It does not cross the midline that
extends to the midline raphae of the tongue." It also say, on second line, "Multiple mildly enlarged/pathologic right cervical lymph nodes in the right mandibular chair are present. No other pathologic lymphadenopathy is present."

I would have hoped the specialist, after seeing the CT scan report, would be able to give a "staging" of the cancer. But so far he has been talking about the costs, and getting that squared away.

I would rather my sister move to Houston and get further medical care at M.D. Anderson center in downtown Houston; we have family there so she can also be better taken care of there, instead of in Dallas. I feel helpless, since I'm in Philly.

Anyway, I wrote a lot. Just wanting some answers:
- is her tumor very big compared to others?
- what is her prognosis? it seems it got caught early?
- she is hoping to get medical insurance coverage in about a month. Does she have time to wait that long?
Or should she pay out of pocket (and have to likely file personal bankruptcy), and schedule treatment (surgical removal, then plastic surgery, then follow-up radiation or chemo?) at M.D. Anderson at the earliest?

Grateful for any insights.

Thank you all, and have courage.