Too early to publish data. You have to remember that it is only in the last year that they have actually started calling this a unique cancer, though it will always be grouped with other oral cancers. I can assure you that since I talk to her almost weekly, that pre-publication information will get to you all first.... What I tried to say to Tom in the last message was that while we have better outcomes from treatment, we are not seeing end results improvement. If this indeed shows survival advantage long term, the question will then become why? Is it a reluctance for this cancer to develop mets elsewhere? That I can through personal experience tell you isn't true. But it is generally believed as we speak of the 5-year number that the odds of recurrence in the same location drop dramatically. This is both from viral and tobacco induced cancers. It is more important as you get further away from the 2-year mark to start monitoring the rest of the aero digestive tract. I am now getting an upper endoscopy every two years. This started with GERD issues, but has been recommended to me as something that would be prudent. So at over 5 years now, I am more concerned with second primaries than I am for a recurrence in the original local environment.

Tom- I just reread my last post and I don't want to come across as some know it all, because I have stated many times I am still on a learning curve myself. I am just further down the path than some others here in a few respects.

I was contacted by the American Academy of Oral Medicine, which is a very small highly trained group of specialists (300) and I will be speaking at their annual conference in Puerto Rico next year as the keynote speaker. At that meeting I am told I will be inducted as a member of the Academy... the first non-doctor to have such an honor. I joked with the person that called me that they are so small and elite a group that they just must need more dues paying members. But he assured me it was because of my contributions to furthering the cause of early detection and awareness of a disease which while very survivable if caught as an early stage disease, has not significantly improved in end results (death rate) over half a century.