I have been told that most pathology labs keep samples 10 years -- whether this applies to "benign" samples I don't know, but certainly samples would be available from a late December dx. However even a microscopic focus of cancer means that there is cancer, and it might be larger than "microscopic" - this could depend on how the section was made or who reads it. (There are lots of stories on the prostate cancer web sites about supposedly "clear" samples going to one of the top PC pathologists and them finding cancer.)

In the case of mets to the lymph nodes, the most common protocol for treatment is for combined chemoradiation, either as a stand-alone therapy or with pre-or post-treatment ND surgery.

Chemo does not have to be devastating -- my husband and I investigated the options and asked questions about side-effects, and his MO prescribed 7x carboplatin, which turned out to be almost a "non-issue" compared to the stress of 33 radiation sessions and (almost) daily amifostine injections. The chemo is a boost to the radiation, and consequently is usually given as a small dose (compared to dose if given as a monotherapy). Our MO recommended weekly injections rather than the other option of 3 chemo treatments given every two weeks, as the latter higher dose was more apt to result in toxic side-effects. It was a good recommendation.

Gail