Joe --

You did the right thing by getting it checked.

As you can see from my signature, my husband was in a similar situation -- his dentist noticed a tiny white patch on his tongue that hadn't been there on previous visits. (He had quit smoking more than 20 years previously.) While the initial biopsy by an oral surgeon showed dysplasia, a noncancerous condition, the pathologist's report (from a lab that does only oral pathology) did raise some potential red flags, so he had the whole thing removed by an ENT a month later. That's when they found SCC at its earliest stage.

He has required no further treatment, other than regular checks by an ENT at a top cancer center not far away. In an abundance of caution, between those appointments he also checks in with the local ENT who did the excisional biopsy.

Fingers crossed for good results... and stick to that decision to quit smoking!

All the best,
Leslie