Interesting. I am older...born 1943...had radiation to throat as a child for "swollen glands." About 20 years ago, at the age of 40+, I was advised to have a radioactive thyroid scan because of these treatments. Recent studies (at that time) showed that there was an increase in thyroid cancer in patients who received these treatments as children. I had the scan, which showed a "cold nodule." I had a partial thyroidectomy, and the nodule was benign. Now I wonder, like you do, if this treatment could have had any causative effect on my oral cancer. Mine was SCC on the upper right maxilla and hard palate, so I don't know if the radiation treatments would have affected that area or not, depending, of course, on how careful they were with their aim and the size of their "beam."

I will keep up with this thread, since I am still at a loss to determine the cause of my cancer.

Colleen--T-2N0M0 SCC dx'd 12/28/05...Hemi-maxillectomy, partial palatectomy, neck dissection 1/4/06....clear margins, neg. nodes....no radiation, no chemo....Cancer-free at 4 years!