Hi, I'm being treated at Jefferson University - Kimmel Cancer Center branch. They are "leaning" towards radiation because on one side, they only cleared a .3 cm margin. The other two margins were fine with .6cm and 1 cm. The tumor is still staged at 1 but measured 1.4 x .4 x .5 cm.

The .3 cm margin on one side combined with the fact it crossed slightly to my right side of the tongue...they did a left neck dissection removing 37 nodes and all clean but didn't check the right side. PET scan showed all clear.

This has to be by far the toughest decision of my life. I'm leaning towards not doing the radiation because it was well differentiated so it was slow growing. I was just late getting to the doctor because I never suspected I had cancer. Hence the need for awareness :-)

My oncologist is "leaning" towards radiaton with one radiologist while another radiologist thinks we should do it.

My thinking is that if I can only have radiation once in the mouth area then why wouldn't I save that card and play it if it reoccurs since radiation still doesn't guarantee no reoccurance? Seems like I would use that card when I knew I absolutely had too - kind of like holding an Ace for all of you poker players :-). I realize having it now does help offset the chance of reoccurance but the side effects seem to tell me to wait until absolutely necessary.

Wish I had a crystal ball...