Hey Barb,
My husband, Dan, was diagnosed last July with SCC mobile left side tongue. He had a sore for approx. 2 months that wouldn't go away. We get cancer sores and just thought that was what it was this time, too. Unfortunately, he wasn't due for a dental checkup during that time. I don't know what they would have said. He finally went to a regular family doctor who said it was some kind of bacterial infection and put him on 2 weeks of antibiotics, then another 2 weeks of antibotics. Finally, after about 5 weeks he referred him to an ENT who looked and said it definitely was not cancer, wasn't sure what it was but decided to do a biopsy. Two weeks later he apologized and said it did come back cancer. We were referred to an oral surgeon who two weeks later scheduled Dan for partial glossectomy. We learned a big lesson by not going to any doctor sooner, but also was drug along for way too long before biopsy. Had it all happened sooner, he probably would have been Stage 1 and maybe, just maybe could have avoided the aggressive neck tumor that appeared just 4 months later. Also, oral surgeon never even suggested radiation for Dan as prevention since the FEW nodes he took were negative. Had I been on this board sooner, I would have known how important radiation would have been for his stage of tongue cancer even if there might not have been node involvement.

Hope this helps...feel free to ask anything else you might need to know from us.

Thanks,
Debbie