My name is mike. i have come across Brian's post on ALS. So my wife had mucoepidermoid carcinoma low grade on her tongue last year 2023. She had this slow growing tumor on her tongue for 10 years prior to finding out in late 2023! 2 lymph nodes were cancerous, but small and still encapsulated. she had surgery to remove a small portion of the cancer from her tongue and regrafted using animal cell along with node(s) removal. 15 nodes in all. All clean except for 2. A few weeks later she had radiation and was completed in march of 2024. 5x a week for 6 weeks. Since then, she has very little taste left and poor production of saliva, though she is on medication to manage her saliva which has helped a bit. she is doing great. speech and swallowing are not an issue. only removed 4 teeth where the radition was targeted. all in all, shes extremely lucky and we are greatful for what could have been. At times i feel guilty that she got off so easy compared to people such as yourself and others on this forum.

My question. Our RO told us that the likelyhood of the cancer coming back is unlikely. less than 5% of reoccurance. But what i worry about are the long term affects of the radiation and it causing other cancers in and around the head and neck area or beyond at a later time in the distant future. Do i have merit to worry? from what i read on the message board and from people posting, they seem to have some type of other cancers develop years later. I cant help but to think it was because of the radiation or chemo given. I also feel its something doctors tend to downplay...

I appreaciate your thoughts and imput. thanks!

Mike