30 days in the course of a squamous cell carcinoma would not make the difference in whether it metastasized to her neck or not. It was there long before the node started to enlarge. Having not smoked or used alcohol heavily, she is one of us that compose the 25% of oral cancer patients that didn't use either. The current thinking is that these cancers are viral in origin, likely HPV. You can read more about HPV in the news archives, and on the cancer facts page of the web site. There is anecdotal evidence that suggests that those of us who were in this 25% group have slightly better odds of living longer than those who got their cancer from the use of tobacco products. As to her being only 44, this is a disease of those over forty and she falls into the normal age group for oral cancers. When you see older people with it, they are usually smokers, and there is a time/dosage relationship that accompanies the exposure to the toxins in tobacco. Radiation treatments will be taxing for her, but the effects of them will pass with time. It will seem like a long time, for me it was about one month of recovery for every week of radiation before I felt normal again. (Or I should say as normal as any of us ever feel after all this.) But life WILL return to normal and be good again. Just try to keep her focused on that positive future. Next week we will be putting up the portion of the web site that deals with the oral/dental problems that you go through during radiation, trismus, mucositis, xerostomia, thick mucous in your mouth and throat. Most of these will also pass with time. If the center she is going to is using IMRT, this is a new radiation technique that spares the salivary glands from radiation exposure and the lifelong dry mouth that it causes. Ask her doctors about it. If you have any questions, we will all try to help you with answers, and you can email me directly if you like. Try to stay positive, and remember that there are lots of us survivors out here for whom life has returned to normal and happy.