I had a sore spot on my gum that persisted a few months and was eventually diagnosed with left buccal/maxillary squamous cell carcinoma in March. After imaging was done and tumor board review, I had surgery for a left maxillectomy and modified radical neck dissection. They did reconstructive surgery at the same time using my fibula and free flap. I just got the path report which shows clean margins but did have 3 lymph nodes with cancer and perineural invasion so it looks like I'll be getting radiation and chemo. I was staged T42Nb. The surgeon seems optimistic but doing google searches on prognosis and 5 year survival for my situation seems pretty dismal.
I am 1.5 hours away from UF-Jacksonville where I have been being treated and where I can get proton radiation but I have the option of doing IMRT much closer to home. As I understand it, treatment will be 8+ weeks and 5 days a week. Does anyone have any knowledge of benefits of PBT vs IMRT? It would be much easier for us to do this treatment closer to home but if there are distinct advantages to PBT we would somehow make it work although I'm not even sure my insurance would cover PBT yet.
Would definitely like to hear from others with this type of cancer and how things turned out.