Tom said his SCC was "back of tongue" so not sure whether that was at base, or on oral tongue. In any case, Hopkins still uses IMRT or tomo-IMRT for oral tongue cancers, although these will often have had surgery first. The people there currently being treated for this condition are on IMRT (also getting concurrent chemo). There are a number of "unknown primaries with nodal involvement" all getting tomo-IMRT or IMRT -- the target field simply includes all the potential affected areas, according to discussions with these individuals.

I want to add I was not being flippant when I asked for the data which finds XRT superior to IMRT for certain types of HNC. These sorts of comparisons are the way doctors make a decision to move away from an older treatment protocol to a newer one, or stay with the older method because it is superior under certain conditions. This is happening all the time in cancer treatment as advances are made, or -- found not to be so "advanced" as once hoped...so if there is data showing superior results for XRT over IMRT in specific circumstances, preferably a study done at same institution with matched cohorts, this would be very important to know.

I agree with Brian that these sorts of issues must be discussed before treatment decisions are made -- so that everyone is comfortable with their decison and don't feel they've been rushed into something. Midway through is not the time or place to bring up any doubts and I apologize for this, and will cease to post on this subject.

Gail