As most of you know, Barry and I went to Sloan-Kettering for consultation and Barry's currently being treated at Johns Hopkins for his Stage IV base of tongue SCC (as well as right tonsil and 2 nodes) Neither CCC's tumor board recommended as stringent a protocol as is being used on Tami's mom. Both centers recommended 33 radiation treatments for total of 66 Gy dose (no hyperfractionation) plus concurrent chemotherapy -- in case of Sloan, either Cisplatin 3 x or Carboplatin + 5-FU also 3x. Hopkins recommended Carboplatin + Taxol 6X, plus 33 IMRT/tomo radiation for total of 66 Gy. Barry opted to forgo the Taxol, his decision based on its potential for neuropathy.

Results at Hopkins are excellent with this protocol even with Stage III/IVs and they have not seen any survival or control advantage to doing more aggressive treatment .

It doesn't make sense to me to treat a cancer so aggessively that the patient's will to live is broken -- if as good results can be achieved with less physical and mental damage.

I hope that the issues which are hurting Tami's mom can be resolved and she can get back to fighting the disease rather than the side-effects of the treatment ...

Gail