Hi all..... My name is Debbie and I am 47 y.o. I was just diagnosed with squamous cell cancer yesterday. It is at the base of my tongue and so far all we know about is the 1 "spot". I am having a CT scan of the head and neck plus a PET scan next week.

I am wondering about treatment options and what is the most successful. I am being encouraged by the surgeon to have surgery of course, but that sounds VERY invasive and 7-10 days recovery in the hospital is ALOT! He also said surgery is often followed by chemo and radiation. He told me the other options were chemo only, radiation only or more preferred a combo of both.

What are your experiences?

Do not let one doctor offer you your treatment options. Please read the many posts here and look in the archives/FAQ

Thanks Brian for your response!

I will look through the archives and try to learn as much as I can. I am an RN so know a little about what is involved but have never dealt with oral cancer.

I do have an appt with an radiation oncologist, not really at the drs. request but mine. My cancer is less than 1 inch in size and he does not physically feel any involvement in the lymph nodes. The tests next week hopefully will confirm that. It was quite by accident that this was discovered and I pray we are in the very early stages.

I have never heard of a spiral CT. I had a CT of the lungs 3 weeks ago. How is the spiral different? This has not been suggested.

Thank you so much for your wisdom and support. This may be the only place I can come for it.

Hi Debbie, You indeed will overcome!

Please realise that perhaps surgery is "invasive" the cancer cells are invasive as well. When you consider treatment options remember the opponent is a dirty fighter. You must defend yourself with every option. Put vanity aside, put survival at the top of the list. 7 to 10 days out of a lifetime is a small percentage. Even 6 weeks of radiation is a small percentage. Fight this with everything you have and some things you don't yet even know about!

Take care and find time for peace.

Thanks Mark for the reply. My problem is I raise yorkies and birds. I have 7 yorks and 73 birds at the moment. I have lots of babies to sell. I rarely leave my home let alone be gone for 7-10 days. These are my babies. I am hoping since they "think" this is very early AND just localized to my tongue that surgery will not be necessary.

The surgery sounds nothing short of a specialized neck slashing. I am going to learn more about lazer and other options. I live in a fairly small town and the surgeon only does about 2 of these a year. Hopefully I can find someone a little more experienced and not as invasive.

Of course I will do what is necessary, but have to look at all my choices. The problem is the choices will differ form one professional to another. That is where the confusion will come in at.

Well, surgery is a little more sophisticated than slashing.... and laser surgery for oral cancer is not an option. Precancerous leukoplakias can be taken off with a laser, but what you are talking about here will require some structure removal. You may end up with losing a little bit of your tongue (if it is early) and a course of radiation to clean up local mets, possibly adding a neck dissection if you have node involvement. In that case the surgery of the neck will be the lesser of the two evils when it comes to recovery. Keep us informed, and remember to involve several different types of doctors. If all you have is a hammer...everything looks like a nail. It applies to doctors too.