Howdy everyone! I'm a 51 year old man living in DFW. I'm 6-0 feet / 190 pounds, never smoked, medium drinker and just ran a half-marathon <2 hours.
9/3/19 Pet scan and biopsy confirmed base of tongue squamous cell cancer, PV+ and T2N1M0.
Radiation oncologist planning 35 short radiation treatments over 7 weeks, and meeting with chemo doc next week.
Original symptom was painless cyst on side of my neck in lymph node. It was removed and pathologist found carcinoma in it.
Doc says "early to moderate stage as still confined to neck area, but moved to lymph node"
Like to think I won't need a feeding tube as like to eat smoothies and milkshakes, but...!
Any comments or suggestions appreciated!

Welcome to the forum. I’m sorry that you have had bad news, we will put in our best effort to help you through your treatment.

HPV positive SSC responds better to treatment. It is an STD although smoking and drinking are contributing factors. The symptoms of base of tongue SSC are often not obvious and many people miss the signs. My husband had a bad case of mouth ulcers which his ENT treated with antibiotics only to have the ulcers come back half a year later. At that point, the ENT said it could be cancer and it was only his second case of oral cancer in his many years of practicing as an ENT. This is the reason why ChristineB always suggests to people to find a doctor who knows about oral cancer and not just a family ENT.

You will likely find out if you will get a feeding tube when you get your treatment plan. Doctors don’t often operate for base of tongue cancer because the area is hard to reach. They may decide to zap the lymph nodes with radiation.

If you have questions, make sure you write them down and ask your doctor at your next visit. I am all for patients advocating for themselves. At this point, before your treatment starts, you may want to eat all your favorite foods. It will be a while before you can do that once treatment begins, what with mouth sores and taste changes.

Do come back and post often. We are not medical practitioners. We are a group of former patients and caregivers, and we can share the knowledge we have gleaned from our personal cancer journeys. Wishing you all the very best.

I posted this earlier and believe that it bears repeating.

Based on my experience having had two operations for oral cancer since 2003, I would like to suggest four thoughts for newcomers.

1) Since oral cancer hits less than 1% of the population, get professional care from a center (CCC) that specializes in cancer and has oral cancer specialists on staff.

2) Don’t hesitate to travel extra hours to such a center-your disease can be life threatening. If distance worries you, see 3 below.

3) Follow-on care may be done at a location which the CCC works with and is nearer to you.

4) Don’t wait to get help, and don’t second guess expert opinion, but if concerned do get a second professional opinion.

Since my cancer is HPV-related, once my treatment is finished and all goes well and get my taste buds back, is drinking a healthy amount of alcohol (2 beers/day for a man) ok for me just like anyone else?

Since HPV is a virus, how do I get rid of it?? Does going through radiation and chemo insure that my current virus will be gone?

What I know is, most people are able will have the HPV virus in them at some point in their lives. The majority of people can clear the virus on their own so that many don’t even know they have had the virus. Those who can’t clear it, end up with HPV positive cancer. When your treatment is over, you may wish to discuss with your doctor whether getting the Gardasil is likely to be beneficial for you.

Again, with the beer question, you will want to check with you MO. However, you can expect some change in taste to occur and beer may not taste the same after treatment.

There is much still to learn about HPV. OCF has been at the forefront of this virus with funding research with Dr Maura Gillison for 20 or so years. To learn more about HPV, simply click on any of the HPV letters on any page and it will take you to the main OCF site where you can read in depth HPV info.

Robintexas,

These days, they like patients to swallow on their own as much as possible, as long as there are no prohibitions from surgeries or other matters preventing such or effecting your weight. Back the day, and i’m only talking 10 years ago, it was recommended to get a feeding tube! They came up with some study that feeding tube patients became more dependent on the tube than someone who did not use one or used it less often, but It did make things somewhat easier for me, but still, I lost 130lbs from dysphagia and other illnesses caused by chemo as I went through one week of induction chemo and suffered major illnesses like septic shock! It took almost a year to recover when they found a recurrence, so this this time i had radiation, no chemo! The story continues for 10 more years with recurrences, but I’m currently cancer free as of January!

Previously, they often radiated both sides of the head and neck. Now, hopefully, it’s not necessary, and just zap the required areas! That’s more likely to happen under clinical trials for reduced radiation.

Good luck!