Hi H, I had stage 2 tongue cancer and, based on my experience, I think it's pretty safe to say that they won't necessarily know what happens next until they do the surgery on your mom.

You didn't mention if she is having a neck dissection (where they remove lymph nodes from the neck) when she has the tongue surgery, but I would assume she is, since about 30% of the time, cancer can spread to the lymph nodes and it won't show up on any of the imaging they do beforehand (such as CT scans).

So that is one thing you may want to be prepared for is that they could find the cancer has spread after all after they do the surgery. If that is the case, she will almost definitely have radiation recommended for her case, and possibly even radiation and chemo. If the nodes that are removed are clean, she may possibly escape the ordeal of radiation, although there are still some other risk factors that could cause them to recommend radaition anyway. In my case, as you can see from my "signature" below I had both radiation and chemo because, although all the nodes they removed were clean, I had some other features of the tumor that made it aggressive. After her surgery, if not before, you may want to get a second opinion, whether or not they recommend follow-up radiation because what should be done for stage 2 cases seems to sometimes be a bit of a gray area. If you can, if you are not at a CCC, you should consider going there for your second opinion.

There are also lots of people here willing to answer any questions you may have--though we are no substitute for knowledgable doctors! And the search engine will also help you find lots of information.

Nelie