Marv,

First of all, I’m very sorry that you have had bad news. It’s hard to be told that the cancer has returned when you’ve already been through so much.

When my husband’s metastasis was diagnosed, six months after he completed radiation and chemo, he was given six months. Then the possibility of an immunotherapy trial came up, so he was one of the first patients to get the PDL-1 treatment. When that did not work, a second trial had opened up and he went on that. In all, his life was extended by one and a half years. During that time, a interventional radiologist found a new way to open up his esophagus, which had been closed by scarring after radiation. Eventually, John succumbed to pneumonia because he had developed silent aspiration, not cancer. What I’m trying to say is, advancements in cancer treatment can come at any time, so don’t lose hope just yet. But you would like to be included in trials, you must let your medical oncologist know now, so they will keep you in mind. The NCI has a page where you can find out about new clinical trials. You can sort of register and you’ll get notification when a trial for your type of cancer comes up. Do understand, though, that clinical trials can be tough to go through, depending on which stage the trial is at. John’s PDL-1 trial was a Stage 1 trial which meant that the medication had only been tried on monkeys before John got into the programme. The question, of course, is, if you are willing to risk that. You would also do well to discuss these issues with your wife before you see your doctors in a few days’ time.

I don’t know what kind of surgery your doctor said he could do, would it be a total glossectomy? If so, you may want to look at the posts by a member by the name of TammyK’s (I may have got her last initial wrong, but I’ll look it up and repost) Her husband had a total glossectomy and Tammy writes about what they went through in some detail.

Head and neck cancers are a tough fight. The researchers and doctors are working hard on them, so don’t lose hope as yet.