Sammie,

How do they know the nodes are clear? Did they do a neck dissection? Heather's surgical margins were also clear. She did have it in 4 nodes, but there was no perineural involvement, no extracapsular spread and her tumor was well-differentiated, which were all supposedly good signs that the cancer had not spread beyond the nodes.

She had aggressive surgery in Sept, started RAD in Oct, had a recurrence in March and died in October. I'm not saying this to scare you....well, yes I guess I am in a way. You need to be scared enough to seek a second opinion. Base of tongue SCC is about as bad as it gets. You want to attack this with everything you can in the first go-round, because you don't usually get a second chance.

If Richard had a neck dissection, I wouldn't worry as much. But if he didn't, how can the doctor say the nodes are clean? Be aware, be proactive and get that second opinion.

Rosie

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.