it's almost time for me to decide how i'm going to fight this thing, seems like radiation and chemo are the only alternatives mentioned, which seem to me to be pretty damaging in the long run. has anyone had any experience with alternative therapies?

Sorry but radiation with or without chemo is the only way to fight this besides surgery.

There are many other options which will claim to be cures in the end, its too late for the patient when they realize conventional methods are what works.

Jane,

I believe I read that you were being seen at Sloan. If that's the case then you are probably going to receive state of the art treatment options which may include surgery but will definitely include radiation. Chemo most likely will be recommended due to the nodal involvement.

Jane,

I saw that you are considering the robotic surgery. Are they recommending the da Vinci surgical robot? I have heard of this for difficult to reach surgical sites.

If you are a candidate, we would like to hear how that goes. The surgery with the robot is less invasive and is supposed to have much better recovery times.

Let us know what your doctors recommend.

Jane

Unfortunately the only reliable alternative to surgery and/or radiation and chemotherapy is Hospice care. Last year's TV special on Farah Fawcett drove home just how illusory and bogus "alternative" therapies are (especially the scene where her German doctor celebrated the "cure" about six months before she died). Having Run a marathon is great preparation for oral cancer treatment (TX) and is often used as a metaphor for sticking out the TX even by doctors who have never run one.
We've had some posters here on OCF who touted "alternatives" but we never heard from them again - obviously if these "alternatives' had really worked, those posters would have been back with a big "I told you so", but dead people don't post.
Charm

You are at the premier cancer center in the US, being seen by the best doctors in the US in most disciplines, and you are considering doing an alternative treatment that is different than what has been shown to be successful in thousands of patients. The treatments that have clinical evidence of working are not easy, even difficult. But they have good success rates. And yes, there are quality of life issues over a lifetime in many people. Just remember that in order to have what you refer to as "pretty damaging " effects, those consequences, that most of us live with as long term survivors, only happen to the people who survive to go on with their lives.

If you are going to try some alternative to what the current NCCN guidelines are recommending, which have been proven to work by the major NCI designated cancer treatment centers in the US, I hope you will compare long term outcomes and survival, in an unbiased manner before you decide to do something "alternative" instead of what is known in thousands of patients to work.

ouch, that smarts. i know i'm still living in a fantasy land where i'm going to wake up and my life will be back to normal.
thanks for all the replies. i know i'm lucky to have gotten into msk. what i'm really interested in is alternative methods to support my immune system, etc, while i'm undergoing treatment. i've always been so healthy, and avoided doctors, and am having a hard time with the realization that now i'm so dependent on the medical establishment.
again thanks for all the input, and sorry for the whining.

Whatever you contemplate just make sure that your cancer treating docs approve. Remember their's and your primary goal is to kill the cancer. EVERYTHING else takes a distant position. To do anything that might, however slim that chance is, decrease the effectiveness of the main treatment is irresponsible.

What whining? Compared to the way that I bitched & moaned, your very reasonable dissatisfaction with being transmuted from super healthy to Cancer patient simply does not rise to the level of whining. It is hard to believe that in the 21st Century, the "best" therapy available is to dissect you and then literally burn your cells and then poison them. The TX is barbaric.

As for taking action to help yourself get thru this TX, OCF calls this "adjunctive therapy" not alternative since it does not replace surgery, rad,& chemo. Everyone varies, but yoga, meditation, pilates helped me. True, I had to quit the formal classes and rigorous practices but I could still do "mountain pose" etc. I did quit the weight lifting entirely though during TX as just getting off the couch for radiation was exercise enough at one point.

And yes, I still wake up some mornings and fervently hope that this was all just a bad dream, but as you are finding out, it's all too real. But just read this forum and see how many people have gotten thru this- you will too
charm

I probably would have been less blunt in my post if you had said adjunctive and not alternative. One is supportive as you say, the other is a substitution. I am all for supportive things as long as your docs sign off on them. Surprisingly, some immune system supportive vitamins that we consider commonplace in normal people, decrease the effectiveness of some of the treatments, that's why the comment to include your treatment team in all your decisions.