My Mom was diagnosed with Mouth cancer 3 years ago. She had radiation and took care of the tumor. In Dec. 06 she made an appointment to have her mouth checked because she was feeling discomfort in the same location. The tumor came back in the same location. The tumor is located at the base of her tongue and along ea. side of her mouth. We saw a surgeon and they refuse to do surgery because it would be pretty much taking out her whole mouth. She just got done with 5 weeks of radiation a couple of weeks ago. She went in to the hospital a couple of days ago to have a trach put in because the tumor was swollen and causing her to have problems breathing. Doctors said it is stage IV. Is there other options if the radiation doesn't work??

Kirsten,
I am so sorry to hear about your Mom's condition. Since chemo has not proven effective for H&N cancer patients as a first line treatment and she had the full amount of radiation (and not responded to it), there isn't much more that can be done. It's highly unusual that they radiated the same spot. It's sounds to me like they are being agressive as they can. You need to ask the hard questions whether the treatment is "curative" or "palliative". If you are not already at a CCC like UW, then I would recommend getting a second opinion from them.

Try to spend as much quality time with her as you can. You may wish to consider hospice care so she can be comfortable at home in a non hospital setting.

Dear Kirsten, Has anyone discussed trying Erbitux [a form of chemo]? It ia not a "to cure" chemo, but it might reduce the tumor size and give her some comfort for awhile.[ In our situation it gave us an additional 8 months] However, if she elects to go into Hospice, they probably will not try it. To reiterate what Gary said, Hospice is would be a good thing to investigate. We are sorry for your situation. Amy in the Ozarks