Hi everyone:
I am writing this because I have a decision to make and need some input to assist with it. As background, I was diagnosed with stage IV neck cancer in October, 2003. Unknown primary, 2Na node tumor (3.5cm), no other known sites. I had 35 radiation treatments with 3 chemo treatments (criplatin)to reduce the size of the node tumor. Neck disection was anticipated from the beginning with low possibility of avoiding it if rad/chemo did exceptional job. They didn't, so I am going into surgery 4/22/04. Oh, forgot to mention that on 11/19/03 had tonsilectomy which discovered primary site in right tonsil.

Decision is: how many lymph nodes to remove during surgery? Given location of primary, node II being the one the cancer traveled to, and the potential risk of permanent injury to right shoulder if nerve is damaged, the choice is to remove nodes 1 - 4 (anterior nodes) or also remove 5 (posterior node) which is the one that could result in shoulder injury. Does anyone have any experience along these lines? Care to comment? Thanks for your consideration.