I need to weigh in also. My husband has had 3 SCC oral cancers (2002, 2005, 2006),starting at age 57 - he is almost 62 now. He never smoked and rarely drinks. He has never had radiation, and this is at the affirmation of 2 separate ENTs, a MO, and his radiation oncologist. I know some would have said that had he had radiation/chemo, at the first SCC, he wouldn't have had the recurrences, however, all indications were that he didn't need it, that each cancer was caught early and completely. I want to reiterate that all were small (T1), well-differentiated, margins all clear, plus following the neck dissection with the first cancer, all nodes were clear. Follow-up scans when he had the recurrence this last time (early May of this year), showed no activity at all, which means that even from the first SCC he had in 2002, nothing remained after surgerical removal of the lesion, to metastasize. And he just had a check-up today at Shands Hospital, and his ENT gave him an all clear. I agree with Jerry in that "each of our cases are different", and "there doesn't appear to be any set of protocols for treatment". Each case has to be weighed on its individual circumstances. I just presented this information as another case history of "radiation or not". Thanks all
JaneP