brm1949,

I am truly sorry that you are facing this again. I still find it revolting at times to type out everything that has happened to me and believe it's me I'm talking about. I feel so non-emotional, but deep down I'm torn up inside.

I discovered lung mets of my tongue cancer in early April 04 a mere 2 months after treatment ended. My lung biopsy tested postive for SCC. I have lesions in both lungs and 5 lesions in total, making my mets inoperable. I think the next step for you would be to discuss surgery as an option followed by thorough discussion of chemotherapy. My lung mets emerged in spite of large does of chemo before and after surgery, so my oncologist didn't believe that more of the same type of treatment would be of any value. I was offered a possiblity of a getting into a clinical trial for which I would have to travel away from my family or go on Iressa just shown to have some good results in lung cancer patients. I am just about to finish my second month of Iressa. Due to my pain level in my chest wall, I believe that the Iressa has down nothing in my case. I recently had to go up on my pain meds to cope.

You have another long journey ahead of you, but you can make it. I know you can. There will be the scans and test to determine final diagnosis. I would bet if you have a local reoccurance there will be more surgery followed by chemo/rad (if you haven't had your maximum radiation exposure) If you have a distant reoccurance you probably will be evaluated for all the same modalities of treatment (surgery, chemo, and radiation) to determine effacy. I hope all this isn't too overwhelming, but you did ask. Keep your family and loved ones near by for support. Also remember I'm only a click away if you need me.

I'm on your team.
Lynn