I strongly advise anyone who has been diagnosed with a serious illness to get a second opinion, if only to add a different perspective -- some insurance carriers even require them for illnesses which incur major treatment expenses.

MDAnderson (Houston) is one of the top CCCs in the country, others in the east include Sloan-Kettering in NYC and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, the OCF web site has a link to the list of the NCI-CCCs throughout the USA. Usually it is not hard to get an appointment, they take cancer seriously, we got our Hopkins appointment for three days after Barry's dx and Sloan a week after that.

I cannot speak to either institutions' approach to treatment of floor-of-mouth SCC, but both handle many oral cancer patients and have top oncologists and surgeons. I am sure others on this list can suggest other options, but in any case, plan on getting a second opinion.

Gail


CG to husband Barry, dx. 7/21/05, age 66, SCC rgt. tonsil, BOT, 2 nodes (stg. IV), HPV+, tonsillectomy, 7x carboplatin, 35x tomoTherapy IMRT w/ Ethyol @ Johns Hopkins, thru treatment 9/28/05, HPV vaccine trial 12/06-present. Looking good!