I need some opinions! (And I know there are plenty of them here!! :p )Tomorrow we go to see our doctors at UVa. I have no idea what they'll tell us, but just in case we are not satisfied with the options they present us with regarding my husband's recurrence, I will question them about treatment options I've read about here.

Additionally, in doing research about Comprehensive Cancer Centers, I've discovered that Duke in Durham, North Carolina is nearer to us than Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Not that being closer is the point. We will take whatever measures are within our means to find the appropriate treatment for Scott. We plan to ask about sending our records for another opinion if need be (or we'll take them in person), so I've been doing travel research. The Johns Hopkins option will take 7 hours to drive; it will cost 1800.00 to fly. Duke will take just over three hours to drive, so flying would not be necessary. However, I don't know if Duke's reputation is as good as Johns Hopkins'. And if we are talking about reputations, I have a friend who lives in CA who would let us stay with her if we wanted to see if City of Hope could take a look at my husband's case (and plane tickets to LA are 1/2 of what they would be to fly to Baltimore!!) She says City of Hope is fantastic.

So, my question is this: If we end up going for another opinion, who knows anything about Duke, City of Hope, and Johns Hopkins to make a good comparison?

This may be moot, as my husband's condition has deteriorated since the weekend (the number of small bump-tumors on his neck/jaw have increased considerably...from 2 to 12 to 20 to 30 to now over 40 in one week and he is having increased ear pain). We may just have to let UVa do what they can to get it under control, but if they give us the "there's not much we can do" song and dance, we're considering hittin' the road. We are not willing to throw in the towel. We don't really want to switch to another treatment center because we do love the folks at UVa..they've been very good to us. The truth is, though, they don't have the means of the Comp. Cancer Centers, and we want technology on our side.

Christine

Wife of Scott: SCC, Stage I retromolar 10/02--33 rad; recurrence 10/03--Docetaxol, 5FU, Cisplatin; 1/04 radical right neck, hard palate, right tonsil; recurrence 2/04--mets to skin and neck; Xeloda and palliative care 3/04-4/04; died 5/01/04.