When I was offered my treatment plan at M. D. Anderson, I was told that chemo would only give me a 5% edge over radiation alone. I took it as I didn't want to have to do this again. At the time, I wanted chemo to mitigate the chances of recurrence and metastasis. The ultimate result was the post-chemo/pre-rad CT scan showed that my primary (2cm BOT) had pretty much disappeared and the largest node met had shrunk to half it's size. Not that this was curative, but it was good to see my disease react to the drugs and they also told me it was a good indicator of what my response would be to radiation. It was all good. I go back for follow-up scans next week.

-Brett


Base of Tongue SCC. Stage IV, T1N2bM0. Diagnosed 25 July 2003.
Treated with 6 weeks induction chemo -- Taxol & Carboplatin once a week followed with 30 fractions IMRT, 10 fields per fraction over 6 more weeks. Recurrence October 2005.