My husband has had a complete stricture for 2.5 years. After being told that there was no hope for him to ever swallow (including MD Anderson) I found a doctor here in Tampa that does a procedure called Lumen Restoration. The Dr. has performed this procedure on my husband and after the 2nd attempt he was successful. That was in April. My husband is now eating everything, albeit chewed up very well and with many sips of water, but he is swallowing. His cancer was stageIV SCC base of tongue w/mets to lymphs. He did not have any surgery, just aggresive chemo & radiation. Part of the reason he developed the stricture was being told "not to swallow if it hurts too much. Just use suction and the feeding tube and the swallowing will get better." Please please, please, know Dan would probably not have developed a complete stricture had he kept swallowing. After learning all of this, Dan's oncologist stresses to all of his H&N patients to swallow something, anything during their course of treatment. Hope this helps someone.