Hi Terry, For my husband, it was a sore throat that wouldn't go away in Aug, 2004. He went to our regular doctor who gave him antibiotics. Then the doctor sent him to an ENT with a specialty in oral cancer who thought he had thrush. He treated him with some kind of prescription mouthwash formula (twice). His sore throat never got better, he was losing weight, and finally in mid-November his dental hygenist thought she saw something problematic when doing an oral cancer check during a routine teeth cleaning. The dentist took a look and sent him to an oral surgeon who did a biopsy that came back BOT SCC in situ. They sent him back to the ENT (who didn't diagnose it to begin with) who was going to do a 'simple' surgery and release him the same day. By that time, we didn't trust the ENT and went to a nearby CCC. Turned out there was lymph node swelling and the CCC thought he had, maybe, Stage II cancer with a very small BOT lesion and possibly one lymph node. They decided on surgery and radiation, and chemo(which he couldn't have) in mid-February, and after which it was found he had 4 lymph nodes with cancer with some nerve involvement moving him up to Stage IV. By this time, he had lost 25 pounds due the the sore throat problem. (Interestly, he didn't lose any more weight after surgery and treatment.)

The CCC never offered up he could do radiation/chemo without surgery, but maybe that was because the lesion was pretty small. I guess removing large tumors can be problematic.

They were originally going to do a selective neck dissection but that was upgraded to a modified radical neck dissection during the surgery.

Connie