Hello All,

I have not been on the boards in a while. My mom has stage 3 base of tongue cancer was dx 11/06 has had 33 rad tx which ended about 10 weeks ago.ENT did a biopsey last week to see if the rad did it's thing...according to him the tumor has shrunk but still there. He called us into his office today to tell us we have 4 choices....

1. Remove part of tongue and nodes on left side now. Explained some of the complications/issues and clearly figured this was her best option.

2. Wait 6-8 weeks and see if the rad continued to do its thing and take care of the rest of the tumor, something her rad doc said could happen, but ENT does not really buy into, and figured just the opposite could happen....the tumor grows and then bigger area of tongue would have to be removed.

3. Chemo - does not seem to think that is a great option for cure.

4. Do nothing and call hospice.

None of the options sound any good to us....but here is my question...

Can anyone out there speak to quality of life after having part of the tongue removed? Can you share your thought process in deciding to have the surgery? Any insight, thoughts or experiences anyone has/had would be greatly appreciated.