Hello Marica, Michelle, Sheldon

I am including replys together for better communcation, if I had missed anything in individual replies.

Hello Marica,

Thanks a lot for your reply. I am sorry to hear about your husband. I hope he is doing fine now. When was he diagonsed for SCC and when did he get the treatment?

I dont know what is PEG or PORT? Please explain. Yes, I will make sure that he gets proper diet when he is treated with radaition. Will he be able to eat or drink by mouth? Or they will have a feeding tube as they had when he had surgery?

I will ask Dr about amifostine also. Please let me know if there is any other precaution I need to take.

Thank you. Krishna
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Hi Michelle,

Sorry to hear about your mother, hope she will do well.


My father is 51 yrs old. Unlike your mother, this is the first time my father was diagonsed for SCC. He had CT scan and Biopsy including general tests like Blood tests, x-ray, Urine tests, ECG, etc. CT scan test suggested some evidence of malignancy in lymph node and biopsy report said Grade I scc. All other reports were normal. Lungs were clear from x-ray report.

Now, we have a common thing that Chemo is not recommended by doctors. People in this group are saying that chemo is usually recommended wityh radaition. But I think chemotheraphy is recommended for stage IV persons. As my father had only one lymph node positive and the tumor was well differentiated, Surgery with radiation was only recommended. But still I will seek second opinion.

My father did not have PET scan? What is this test? Do u think he should have this done before radiation? Please let me know the details about radiation type when u know it.

Please keep posting and be in touch..

Thanks for your response.

Krishna
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Hi Sheldon,

I am consulting a doctor in my town in India who has an expereince in surgical oncology for last 20 years and arguably he is the best. But as you suggested, there is no team of doctors. I was totally relying on this expereicne and recommendations. Without taking second opinion or waiting for more time, we had surgery done based on his recommednations and the histopathology report proved that it was necesaary. Also, as the report came out to be positive for one lymph node, I think he is recommending radation for my father. A radiation oncologist will be consulted this week. I agrre that I must take second opinion and I will tell my father to do it.

chemotheraphy was not recommended. I heard that chemo theraphy is the worst of all 3 treatments. Is it true? I read the article given by you and will consult a doctor to find out more about chemo whether it is required for not?

Thanks for your response.

Krishna