Kim,
Thanks for the info on the bilateral RAD.

Brian,
Could I ask your opinion on that please? Is it essential for Heather to have both sides of her neck irradiated?
If she can tolerate it, how well does the amiphostine protect the salivary glands? I know survival is the first concern, but the xerostomia is a HUGE issue in her mind. The RAD onc. is setting up for just one side of her neck and to change it now might delay the treatments even more.
I just read an article on the importance of having the total treatment time (from surgery to the end of RAD) be less than 100 days. She already will be going over that time. Her surgery was Sept 4th. Her diagnosis to surgery time was quite short, however, if that makes any difference. She had the surgery 2 weeks after they got the biopsy results.
Also, I am still a little confused on the Stage. The surgeon said Stage 4 because more than 1 node is involved. The path report says T2N1MX, which looks more like Stage 3. Now that the chest scan is negative, I assume that means it is now M0. But, broken down further, I think her status would be T2N2bM0. I'm thinking the variance is because although she had 4 nodes involved, the largest was only 1.2 cm. I've read that the staging partly focuses on node size and any under 3cm or even 6 cm is not as bad. Is that correct or just misleading? Does that make a difference in choosing RAD/chemo or just RAD?

Still terribly confused. I wish I had found this site earlier. I feel a terrible mistake has been made by not starting RAD weeks ago.

Thanks,

Rosemary

Was primary caregiver to my daughter Heather who had stage IV base of tongue SCC w/ primary recurrence. Original diagnosis August 21st, 2002. Primary recurrence March 18th, 2003. Died October 6th, 2003.