Robins diagnosis was T1N2Mo.I remember at the time being told by various members of the forum that this was a "good" prognosis type of diagnosis.The primary tumour on the side of his tongue was quite small and was biopsied and removed by laser surgery.The secondary tumour (on the opposite side to his primary which was unusual)was much larger and fine needle biopsied then removed during a bilateral radical neck dissection.67 lymph nodes were removed,and at this time the cancer had not spread to any of them according to the pathology report.The MDT board recommended radiotherapy ,no chemo was ever suggested.The neck dissection healed perfectly and apart from trigeminal neuralgia Rob had little problem.The only obvious sign of his tumour was an inverted egg shaped indentation where the secondary tumour had been.This was to be his nemesis,but why remains a complete mystery.Despite supposed clear margins, six weeks after the end of radiotherapy a pin prick hole appeared in the middle of this indentation.Within a week the pinprick was the size of a golf ball and oozing a fetid discharge,and by the time he was seen again at the hospital the golf ball hole was a tennis ball hole and the tumour could be clearly seen fungating and necrotic.Mri showed invasive recurrence and 4 tumours in his lungs.No treatment was available or offered and three weeks later he was dead with over half of his jaw line gone and a hole from his ear to over the midline of his neck,some two inches wide.

Why? how? all the pathology showed no indication of this outcome,no chemotherapy was ever considered neccessary,margins were clear,no spread or invasion was detected,healing was uneventful.Robs tumour was patently not encapsulated and had clearly eroded the capsule it was contained in (the parotid lymph node),but no one knew and no tests showed this.
Medicine is supposed to be an exact science,but mother nature seems a law unto herself,and their really are no two cases alike.For this reason guidlines are just that,but theres no second guessing cancer is there?