Hi Thalia,

Welcome. You can put the diagnosis and other information here by going into your member profile under signature, there's a space for it.

Cisplatin is considered a gold standard in many CCC's because it's been around a long time and has a track record. Combining it with 5FU is a protocol that is also used. Erbitux is a recent addition but starting to be used in the primary treatment phase. There are a number of clinical trials on that. It has been more commonly used for treatment of recurrences but it is getting a lot of attention as a promising therapy.

You are quickly going to discover that there is more than 1 treatment protocol so don't let that throw you. Ask about side effects and toxicity for all of them and make your decisions based on that information. We recently went to a HNC patient conference and the oncologist who spoke told us that all chemo is toxic and there are varing degrees of side effects that happen. Some protocols provide a slightly better risk of survival in certain circumstances. He advised us to think about what our personal risk tolerance was versus quality of life issues from potential side effects in making any treatment decision.

No 2 cancers are exactly alike. Location, health, medical history, stage, how aggressive the cancer is, poorly or well differentiated, whether it is extracapsular or still contained in the lymph nodes all factor into this.

For example, Cisplatin caused a high frequency hearing loss and neuropathy in Jack but also had a slightly higher survival rate in long term studies. It had been around longer and was a known quantity so that made the side effects worthwhile for us. We would make that choice again but I want to stress that everyone is different. You should ask about carboplatinum as there is some evidence this may have fewer toxic side effects.

Spend a little time clicking on the links on the home page of the website, there's great information there. You may get answers to some of your questions. Also look at the Getting Through It project posts on this forum and What I Wish I knew.

Whatever you decide just know that you will get through this.

Regards JoAnne