Debbie,

I think Dan is in Vegas. The only way to completely and accurately stage this, with respect to the nodes, is by removing them. I had 2 nodes out of 30 come back +, but they were not apparent during preoperative examinations and did not show as suspicious on scans. I don't have the time right now to go into all the options, but quite often the neck dissection is done as added insurance that they get it all. Also, there are varying degrees of neck dissection. They range from minimally to highly invasive.

Glenn