Today we had our 1st of the 2 dr visits for this week. We met with the surgeon who is also the oncologist following Bob's case. Basically, he told us that the radiation did exactly what it was supposed to in removing the cancer at the base of Bob's tongue. (During surgery the dr was able to remove alot but not all of it)He is pleased with Bob's recovery thus far & arranged for Bob to meet with the speech therapist for some exercises to help restore full swallowing.

I read alot on this site about staging & finally asked today because I previously choose not to dwell on it. The doctor said Bob's cancer would be T1 N2b which he said would be stage 4? Then in the next breath he said he wasn't worried about Bob's case & that the prognosis remained very good. I saw one of Brian's posts from some time ago that mentioned a statistic that stage 3-4 oral cancers have a 23-30% survival rate. I guess I am confused. I realize the dr is probably not going to tell us his predictions & I have faith that Bob can recover fully from this, but that statistic remains in the front of my memory. Can anyone shed any light on this or help me with this one?