HELLO i had a squomous cell tumor removed frm my toungue july 13 it started as a lesion nd finaly after two months of misery i wnt to a occolugist and he did a biopsey. two weeks later they decided to do a neck desection and hey found only a pin head cell in one node so i do not have to have treatmenmt but im being watched every month and a scan in 6. i had dentures and need to get new ones done i must say this was all a shock to me as said was caused by dentures and i am now dealing with the healing of the neck desections but need supprot of the fears that creep in my mind,, any supprt is good thanks sharon

Welcome my first day as well but looks like I will be here a lot.

I am Nigel, 3 weeks out of RT, trying to keep it all together.

I had a T1N2 SCC infected tonsil removed in May, with 32 lymph glands removed and only one infected. Since then had a radical disection, 2 bouts of chemo, 33 fractions of RT, radical, welcome weightloss!

I am keeping happy and busy and listening to my body which is great, just doing what is enough to get me through each day.

Good luck and welcome this is the best forum I have found of its type anywhere on the net.

i ahve had not to have treatmet the neck disection like yours there was only a pin head cell out of thee 24 they took out. so for me they are watching every month and this has been since july of the first surgery of the tounge. i o bk next week and do so untill they do a special scan,, good luck thanks for the reply good to know folks out there sharing sharon

reddoggie. Very often in these cancers there are micromets to the nodes in the neck that cannot be seen with CAT scans or MRI's. These occult mets finally show themselves as actual tumors or malignant nodes a year to two later. Ask your doctor if he will do a PET scan which looks for things which are too small to be seen by these other scans, actually high metabolism in cells - which is a sign of malignancy many times. Before anyone assumes that a surgical only solution to these head and neck cancers is the final solution, they should at least have this scan. Please do not miss your quarterly recalls. This cancer recurres all too frequently, and if it does, you want to catch it at the earliest possible opportunity.

Welcome rd

I'm glad you found this forum. You will find many others here who have had tongue SCC also and will offer support and advice.
Hope you are recovering well from your neck dissection.

I'm glad you are being so well advised medically and having regular checks. Even though the lymph tumour was only pinhead size, I imagine it would have contained millions of malignant cells (my uneducated guess). Very good news that the other 23 were clear.

I hope to hear from you again soon, meanwhile I wish you improving health.

Love and light from Helen

yes thanks as its a pet scan they said they will do in the 6 months frm now i assume then in dec, i do go every month for a ck and hope he will let me get my dentures redone to wear. they told me the next two yrs are the most critacal and i will be cked monthly i am glad as i have always the wonder of teh what ifs in my mind thanks all for yur support glad i found this site sharon