I’ll try and keep this brief. My 88yo mom had inferior maxillectomy with free flap reconstruction surgery last March for OSCC, stage 4. Recovery has been difficult, but she is amazing and doing ok. Top notch care. She did not have precaution follow up radiation because they felt her body couldn’t handle it and they were confident they removed the tumor. Clear margins, no additional tumors were found in lymph nodes and 3-month follow-up scans all look good! But I’m still worried about recurrence. She has oral lichen planus which causes her mouth to be extremely raw and inflamed, so it’s hard to know whether her newest issues are simply from that. She has canker type sores constantly and can barely eat and treatment not helping. So my questions are… should she get a biopsy or another scan? How often after cancer treatment should one get scans - every 3 months? 6 months? Am I jumping the gun? She has seen an ENT doc, prosthodontist, and oral surgeon about the sores but none seem to think the sores are cancer.