[quote=wilckdds]These are my thoughts:

Those of us that can't find a cause for our cancer have a choice of driving ourselves crazy trying to figure it out or try to find a way to put it to rest.
[/quote]

Jerry - let me clarify why I am asking this question. I am not trying to drive myself crazy, but I want to understand whether something in her current environment/living conditions can be a contributing factor to the recurrence of her oral cancer. That is, if there is some evidence that if, say, old paint, contributes to the development or oral cancer - or some other construction materials (like asbestos or lead paint) used in old apartment buildgins, I would try to find her a new apartment. So, my interest is not to answer "eternal questions" or find what to blame, but to see if I can isolate what can be contributing to my mother's desease and remove that element from her life to increase the chances of recovery and, therefore, survival.

OC is not very well researched yet. And most research stadies focus on smokers and heavy drinkers as they constitute about 75% of those affected by the desease. Therefore, I was curious whether some folks here who have not smoked/drunk had any experience that would indicate any other factors that could cause it.