Hi!

I am wondering if anyone knows of a forum/site where oncologists answer questions posed by the forum participants. I see some sites where general practitioners/family doctors answer some basic health questions. It would be great if there was a site where I could raise some specific questions about oral cancer and get answers from the experts.

My close family member is being treated at a cancer center, but sometimes I have questions I would like to ask that were not answered during the visit.

Thank you.

There are 2 dentist who are members of OCF that post and answer informal questions here.

Im not aware of any site you can get specific info from an oncologist.

Christine

NewYorker,

Can you call the doctors, or others on the health care team, with follow up questions? My team hands out their business cards liberally to me and my caregivers and are very, very open to phone calls with follow up questions. They are very aware of how overwhelming both this disease and the treatments are and that there will be follow up questions.

Don't be shy! Ask questions, make lists - that's what the medical team is there for.

- Margaret

why don't you try posting the questions here?There is mot much Brian and gary don't know about oral cancer.

liz

No doctor in his right mind is going to answer medical questions related to you over the internet. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Medical advice without proper patient history and examination will not only likely not be right, but if it is wrong and it hurts you, a person with a medical license is going to end up in court if they do this. It does not happen except in generalities.... newspaper advice columns are always answered in generalities, and what good will those be to you? You can get that here, and perhaps even some specifics that MIGHT apply to you from people that have been through all this before you based on hundreds of people's experiences.

NewYorker10,
Hi, and welcome. (Yeah, I know you would prefer to have never had to find this site.)
You will probably not find exactly what you are looking for in terms of Doctors and/or Oncologists answering your specific questions. The reason being, it would be inappropriate for any professional to give a treatment suggestion on a person's condition and suggested treatment that we have never examined, know their history and the dignosis and treatment plan.
This site is, however, the best online resource that I have found. The site founder,Brian Hill, has made it his mission to bring OC to the forefront and turn his unfortunate journey into a light of hope for all others who find this site.
If you have questions post them in the appropriate catgory and I'm sure you will get many responses from patients, caregivers and professionals. Use the search tool to see if your topic has been previously discussed.
Brian has tried to make sure all information in all posts is subject to review and accurate. The administrators of this site are not at all shy in correcting inaccurate info, adding current info or chasing false hope purveyors away.
Please post any questions you may have and those who are in-the-know will try to answer them.
Cheers,
Mike

I am sure if you ask questions here , seeing as how most of us have been at war with this OC , that you will get some very good answers. These are very knowledgabe people. I agree witjh Margarette . My Drs will asnswer any question I or my family including the gfriend I had, ask them. That includes at least 4 Drs.

Actually, there are certainly sites where doctors do answer specific questions (those sites, obviously, have very clear legal disclaimers). Here are just 2 examples:
http://www.doctorslounge.com/forums/

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/list

The 1st one even has the Head and Neck cancer thread, but the doctors answering questions are primary care physicians, not oncologists, so they are probably not the right people to ask tricky questions.

Actually, I did post my question here but did not get the answer I was looking for, since it's really a question for the doctor. And I beleive an experienced oncologist can have an opinion that may be helpful from just that description, albeit, not a reliable answer, perhaps.

My question would be the following:
"My mother has been suffering from recurring cancer of oral cavity for the past few years, and had been undergoing treatment at a major hospital.

Her case has been somewhat unusual for 3 main reasons:
1) She's never smoked and never consumed alcohol (unlike 85-90% of people who normally suffer from this OC). She's always been very protective with regards to sunlight.
2) She was tested negatively for the most common strains of HPV virus, which some studies indicate contirbutes to OC
3) The 1st tumor was fully removed - good frozen sections during surgery, good pathology report indicating that all of the tumor was removed and the margins were benign. But then the cancer recurred again and again with very similar characteristics (small tumor, clean removal, recurrence 7-10 months later). Fortunately, the recurring tumors were discovered early in during regular checkups by the dentist and the oncologist. Every time, it was either Stage 0 or Stage I without metastasis. She did a cat-scan of head and neck several times, and it was clean every time she did it. She did a needle bipsy of the lymph nodes which was negative.

According to our cancer doctor, there are only 2 main treatment options for the Stage I cancer of oral cavity - surgery and radiation. The doctor does not recommend radiation yet since he feels it should be the treatment of last resort in her case (since you can do radiation only once, and radiation does not kill pre-cancer cells that may be developing into cancer later on). There are some experimental drugs used in clinical studies, but no conclusive information on effectiveness for this kind of case. What is your opinion on cases like this?"

By the way, I sent my questions to some doctors and cancer researchers hoping at least one would say "give me a call, we can discuss it", as I understand that some may be hesitant to say anything in writing to avoid potential legal liability (especially in this wonderful country of ours where people sue each other day and night). But no one replied at all.

My candid answer to that question would be "take her to another doctor and see what he says."