Barbara --

Our oncologist's specialty is organ preservation in head and neck and laryngeal cancer, and she told us (just after Barry was diagnosed) that they are having such good results from combined chemoradiation that she did not recommend any additional pre-treatment surgery. (Barry had already had a tonsillectomy to remove right tonsil, which turned out to be the primary -- like your husband's -- this was when he was diagnosed; the ENT also did fine needle aspiration of the lymph nodes whch also found cancer).

Barry had 33 radiation treatments (tomo-IMRT, bilateral) and 7 chemo treatments (carboplatin only) at Johns Hopkins and had what they call a "complete clinical response" -- that is, no sign of cancer. His MO and RO (radiation oncologist) also did not recommend a post-treatment neck dissection, a number of CCC's are moving away from this step (e.g. Sloan-Kettering).

Barry is now one year from end of treatment and last exam showed everything still looking good, of course they will continue to monitor him regularly. He is back to normal in activities and virtually normal in eating (only those very spicy foods remain no-nos)

Gail Mac