Hi Mary,
In May of 2001 my mother had a radical neck at which time they found some nodes that were positive for cancer. She opted not to have surgery on her tongue at that time and the radiologist told her he thought if she had the neck surgery and radiation she might be able to avoid the more extensive surgery. As it turned out it was probably a poor choice, because although it looked good up until December of that year, I don't think the cancer in her mouth was ever completely gone. When she had surgery to remove her tongue the PET and CT scans all showed it had moved to her jaw and the floor of her mouth. She had 60% of her tongue, the right mandible and teeth on the bottom and the floor of her mouth removed. She developed an infection and was in the hospital for over a month. So as you can see she is not enthusiastic for more surgery. Even though the doctors see no other areas in her body besides on her lung about 4-5 cms, it is the same cancer squamous cell, and her thoughts are that even though they would treat it as another primary cancer the chances are it will turn up somewhere else after she goes through all this.

Sorry I probably gave you a little more info than you requested, but thanks for your interest.