Hi
I am a 68 yo male that was diagnosed with tongue cancer in March. I had surgery on 4/16/19 in which a partial glossectomy was performed and 23 lymph nodes in my neck were removed. All the pathology came back clear as well as the margins. The CCC that I went to is recommending radiation but say it’s a borderline case and want me to make the decision. If all the nodes and margins were clear, why should I have radiation? Very confused as to what to do.

Hello -

A few months ago I was in the exact same situation as you are now (as evidenced by my user name!). I had to make the same choice (but as a 59 year old). I just completed my 7th (of 30) radiation treatments 30 minutes ago. In the end here were the three things that swayed me to do the radiation:

1.) The docs said "a few stray cancer cells may have been left behind"
2.) Several people said to me "If you do not do it and your cancer returns, you will regret it"
3.) The doc, who I trust, said if you were my brother I would recommend that you do it

Now sometimes they will recommend chemo with radiation for this situation. One thing that leaned me towards doing the radiation is that they said chemo would not be required.

Seven treatments into radiation and it is not too bad, yet...

Please let us know what you decide to do.

Thank you,
Mark