Christine, my cancer is HPV positive and it does say so in my signature line.

Nevertheless, I completely agree with you on the rest of your points,every patient is indeed different. I only mentioned my case here as I didn't find too many other ones here where rads only without chemo were given. It has given me a great deal of anxiety and I can imagine other people in similar boat might feel the same.

On the other hand, I know that my case was presented in front of a medical board/pannel which included MOs. So also agree that Tony should probably at least seek a MO to see what they say.

My understanding is that my case was also presented before a panel that included an MO as well as RO, surgeon and ENT doc. The entire group signed off on radiation (without chemo) as being next appropriate step in my treatment.

Yes, I will receive radiation on both sides, and have been told by RO that off-side rads will be lighter than on-side.

thanks for caring enough guys to answer.

Everyone, have a great day.

Tony

P.S. Ambra, dance club has a Halloween Costume party Friday night. I'm going as a football ref willing to take a bribe/payoff to help Arkansas win at least one more football game this season. That should stir them up.

Opps! Sorry Ambra, I didnt see it but yes its there. My old age is showing.

I think the difference between some of the other non chemo scenarios is that you still have positive margins. The other T2N1 may not have. This definitely makes a difference.

hugs and take care.

Plus Ambra had TORS, Selectve Neck Dissection.

Tony, hope you have a great time at the Halloween dance. Your costume sounds awesome. I am staying away from those this year, I have kept this away from my dance community. Although I would make a bit (too) realistic Frankenstein bride with my huge neck scar!

No worries Christine. I have been missing too many things myself lately at the ripe old age of 36.

This is gonna sound bizarre - Last week after the initial radiation consult and simulation the "strep throat" returned with a vengeance. I was still on antibiotics (augmentin) and symptom free for like 6 days when here it comes again.

So it's off to docs office who says this time we do a culture because if it was strep then augmentin should have cured it.

Two days later throat culture results says nothing grew, so it could be
1. viral in nature, 2. something related to the cancer. Sit tight over the weekend, give the culture two more days to grow in case it was a slow grower. We'll get final culture report on Monday.

Whoa, what do you mean related to the cancer. Nurse practioner said we reviewed your path report from surgery and they used the word invasive to describe your cancer. I also remember reading the words moderately differentiated which I didn't take to be positive. Combine those two phrases and the imagination can easily start to go wild.

So, of course all this happens late on Friday afternoon, so nothing much can be done until Monday morning.

Now, let's throw one more monkey wrench into the equation. My dentist wants to remove my last wisdom tooth prior to radiation. It's the lower left wisdom tooth, the one immediately adjacent to tumor site. I've never had any trouble with this tooth in past. Next week is earliest I can get it removed. Dentist says we need at least two weeks recovery before rads begin. So, now we're looking even further down the road to finally get to start treatment for an invasive, moderately differentiated tumor. That's roughly 2 months from initial surgery to beginning of rads.

Would you be worried?

Hi Tony,

I am sorry to hear about these stressful developments.

Not sure what the whole throat thing means. As for the teeth, two weeks wait is pretty standard from teeth extraction to rad commencement. They did remove all of my wisdom teeth, though the one adjacent to the tumor site was already long gone. The molar next to it has a small filling and they said they need to watch it very carefully.

Hope you manage to relax a bit and do something nice this weekend.

Hi all
I also had rads only after a neck dissection, I also quizzed my oncologist about chemo after same discussion on forum which our old friend charm participated in. oncologists response was due to small tumour and neck dissection results ( clear margins) the added help +- 4% of chemo on a HPV+ scc versus, the side effects of chemo didn't justify having it. My oncologist is the head of the department in Victoria
I am currently seven months out from end of treatment which was much easier then expected, back to pretty much normal
Hope you and ambra enjoy your weekend make sure you eat your favourites as they aren't fibbing about loosing your taste for a bit.

Best of luck. Ken

Moderately differentiated relates to aggressiveness - the closer the cancer looks to your normal cells the more aggressive it can be. Poorly differentiated = highly aggressive, moderately is exactly what it sounds like! and well differentiated is the least aggressive. Invasive means it is not superficial it has moved into the surrounding tissue and has depth. I would not let them remove your wisdom tooth. Firstly they would be messing with an area that may still have some microscopic cancer opening you up cutting that area is bloody and to me just gets it moving, secondly (I had radiation to my tongue and both sides of my neck and they did not remove any of my 3 impacted wisdom teeth) it has never bothered you, and thirdly the wait time is too long.

The potential problem with leaving it is if you do have problems later in life with your wisdom tooth, having it removed can be a major issue with your jaw. But that goes for all teeth not just wisdom teeth.

I'm sure someone else will be around to give you there opinion.

Hugs and good luck