Hi everyone.
Im new to the forum.
Im 6 weeks post operation.
I had a partial glossectomy and neck dissection on the left side of tounge and neck on February 12th. There were clear margins. One out of 41 lymph nodes had a cancerous deposit of 0.1cm.Very small deposit that the Dr was not too concerned with. This caused my diagnosis to go from Stage II to Stage III.
At my second post operation appointment Dr. said healing looked very good.
Approximately a week later Dr called and informed me that the Tumor Board had met regarding my case and unanimously decided radiation therepy was NOT necessary in my case. Dr. then informed me that they would like to offer me immunotherapy IF I was interested.
Met with an oncologist regarding the immunotherapy. Keytruda is what was recommended. Ended up leaving with more questions than when I arrived.
My concern and question is if the Tumor Board recommended no radiation therepy but offered immunotherapy, if I wanted it, would the trade off for a potential increase in reduction of recurrence be worth all the side effects of immunotherapy? Or would tri monthly monitoring be a better direction to pursue?

I look forward to responses.

Thanks.

69BB.

Hello 69 BigBlock,


Welcome to the forums.

I hope you are recovering well from your surgery.

My two cents are those types of questions would best be answered by your doctors and / or a second opinion.

Perhaps it would help you weigh the decision to compile a list of your questions and meet again with oncologist to have them explain the relative risks of the options better?

If you are in the US, I’d ask if you are doing this at National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC). If you are in the US and you are not at a CCC, you may consider getting a second opinion at a CCC if feasible.

They may explain it better or have a different recommendation.

So far my lymph biopsies nodes came back clean (axillary—likely just inflammation reactive on PET/CT).

Have you had a PET?

My PET wasn’t until a while after surgery as my tumor was tiny, and micro invasive.

Side effect risks on both chemo and immunotherapy are highly personally variable, might be a crap shoot.

Maybe request them help you decide?

Maybe as you chew on the questions and read more up on the side effectcts and ask clarification questions to your care team you’ll arive at a more comfortable understanding of the risk and your situation?

Did they do HPV testing on it? Mine they did not, and I wished they did.

My Dad and Brother both had bad reactions to Chemo and immunotherapy like treatments (details obscured in exact regimen, both had Carboplatin)

Best wishes for a cancer free recovery for you and clarity of mind in deciding your course of action.

R/
CQ