Reading this thread has really helped calm me and my husband down quite a bit. I am the one who started the thread below this one. The more I think about what transpired the other day, it just doesn't make sense and I think the radiation oncologist has unnecessarily frightened us. He didn't really do anything more than a quick look-see and then put on a glove and felt the area at the base of the tongue for a few seconds. He felt the lesion, thought maybe he felt a "tiny" lump. Based on this, he told us he thought the cancer was back. After proceeding with this discussion for a few minutes and calling the surgeon and ordering a neck cat scan, he then saw how much he has scared us and came back and said, oh, but you know, it could also just be a non-healing spot that might need to be treated with hybaric oxygen. That he really didn't know. I'm beginning to think that our R.O. was just really out of line with the way he presented this to us. I mean, how could he know by just poking a finger down there? And also, wouldn't it be pretty unusual for a recurrence to happen this soon? The R.O. told us it wasn't. However, I just read a report on 2 large studies (close to 500 people each) that showed for T1 tumors that had both surgery and radiation, the cancer did NOT recur at the local site (site of surgery) about 90% of the time. I've also read the recent full Anderson M.D. study (published May, 2004 I think) on the use of surgery + IMRT radiation that had a similiar number cited. So, it seems that the odds would be against this. Also, its not like this spot ever healed and came back. He had the surgery in Feb, it was starting to heal, he had the radiation and then it started to feel worse with each passing week. By the final week, it was very painful, and it has never healed. Thanks again for all the info above, it seems to support the idea that there may be no worries here after all. Still waiting to find out when they are arranging the appt with the H/N surgeon next week.