Dr was very up front with me. He gave me three options for treatment.

1) Surgery on the site in my mouth only and Dr visits every week.

2) Surgery on the site and removal of the sentenial node. If the sentenial node proves to be cancerous, a neck dissection would then be done.

3) Surgery on the site and a neck disssection.

4) Radiation in cases 1 - 3.

What swung my decision to option 2 and no radition was the Dr's opinion that if the sentenial node and margins were clean the probability of the cancer existing elsewhere was in the 10% range. That way I still have all the radition bullets in my gun in case of reoccurance. When the sentenial node was not identified, we elected to take out all the nodes in the right side of the neck and all proved clean, which added to my comfort level.

If the probability is ~30%, and I have not even received adequate testing to see where we are, then that is completely different.

Could someone be so kind as to lay out what the normal testing protcol is and also any information on the sentenial node theory? I would be greatly appreciated.

Note that the Dr freely admits that he gave me more infomation and allowed me more choices then he typically does. The Dr is head and neck cancer specialist.

Thanks,

John