Actually, there are certainly sites where doctors do answer specific questions (those sites, obviously, have very clear legal disclaimers). Here are just 2 examples:
http://www.doctorslounge.com/forums/http://www.medhelp.org/forums/listThe 1st one even has the Head and Neck cancer thread, but the doctors answering questions are primary care physicians, not oncologists, so they are probably not the right people to ask tricky questions.
Actually, I did post my question here but did not get the answer I was looking for, since it's really a question for the doctor. And I beleive an experienced oncologist can have an opinion that may be helpful from just that description, albeit, not a reliable answer, perhaps.
My question would be the following:
"My mother has been suffering from recurring cancer of oral cavity for the past few years, and had been undergoing treatment at a major hospital.
Her case has been somewhat unusual for 3 main reasons:
1) She's never smoked and never consumed alcohol (unlike 85-90% of people who normally suffer from this OC). She's always been very protective with regards to sunlight.
2) She was tested negatively for the most common strains of
HPV virus, which some studies indicate contirbutes to OC
3) The 1st tumor was fully removed - good frozen sections during surgery, good pathology report indicating that all of the tumor was removed and the margins were benign. But then the cancer recurred again and again with very similar characteristics (small tumor, clean removal, recurrence 7-10 months later). Fortunately, the recurring tumors were discovered early in during regular checkups by the dentist and the oncologist. Every time, it was either Stage 0 or Stage I without metastasis. She did a cat-scan of head and neck several times, and it was clean every time she did it. She did a needle bipsy of the lymph nodes which was negative.
According to our cancer doctor, there are only 2 main treatment options for the Stage I cancer of oral cavity - surgery and radiation. The doctor does not recommend radiation yet since he feels it should be the treatment of last resort in her case (since you can do radiation only once, and radiation does not kill pre-cancer cells that may be developing into cancer later on). There are some experimental drugs used in clinical studies, but no conclusive information on effectiveness for this kind of case. What is your opinion on cases like this?"
