I know that everyone here is concerned about recurrence if you aren't already dealing with it. I have a question; since your initial Dx and Tx what changes in your life have you made? I guess what I'm asking is do you do anything in an attempt to prevent recurrence?

Tim,
I asked my head and neck surgeon and he said it was just plain luck but it did change my lifestyle a little. First off, get your followup appointments, scans and labwork as directed. If you use any tobacco products or drink beyond "moderation" STOP.

I eat lots more fruit, vegetables and salads and far less red meat (Does any of this really work -or matter??? Who knows -but at least it makes me FEEL like I'm doing something proactive). Try to reduce stress. Part of this is getting beyond fear of cancer.

Most importantly - Savor and ENJOY each day of your life!

I don't know about head and neck cancer, but there is a lot of work going on trying to figure out why some cultures have very little breast or prostate cancer, and why others have so much. An epidemiologist at Hopkins once called these and some others, "lifetstyle" cancers, which includes diet (although genetics can also play a role). As regards diet, cultures where little red meat is eaten, compared to lots of vegetables, healhty oils like olive oil, fish and soy, seem to have the least problems. There have been some studies relating increased growth of prostate cancer to certain animal fats, for example. What is interesting is that immigrants from countries where prostate cancer is (or was) relatively rare, their offspring -- eating a American diet -- end up with same rate of PC as the rest of the US population (where it is the most common cancer for men, after skin cancer).

For this reason a Mediterranean-type diet or oriental diet, with a lot of healthy plant oils, soy, vegetables and fish or poultry rather than red meat, is often recommended to men who are at risk for PC, who have had it treated, or who are monitoring very low volume (so-called "latent" PC) with watchful waiting.

Whether this would have any benefit for head/neck cancer -- well, as Gary says, it makes you feel as if you are being proactive. The other benefits would be for blood cholesterol, heart health and weight.

Certainly eating foods known to contain antioxidants, as well as those associated with immune system functioning (e.g. Selenium-containing foods such as nuts) can't hurt. Trying mega-doses of supplements, on the other hand, is apt to be counterproductive and even harmful.

Gail

Tim,

I asked all my cancer docs and beyond the recommended checkups(which won't prevent it either) and no tobacco(I was a non smoker anyway), they all agreed there was virtually nothing in my control.

I obviously asked what my chances of a reocurrence was and they said percentages are for doctors, not patients. Telling me statistically I had a 20% reoccurrence risk means nothing to me if I get it again and likewise if I don't get it so let it go, they said.

Being a CPA it's hard to forget percentages but I guess what they are trying to say makes sense.

I have been developing a list of questions in a survey format that I would like to pass by Brian and Gary to seek their permission to ask all posters who have had a reoccurrence to complete. I know that it would not pass scientific standards but I do think the tabulated results would be of interest to all of us.

I can't agree more with Gary that even though a recurrence may be a play of luck, I do think that there is something we can do trying to keep the disease away. In my first two years post treatment, the oncologist constantly reminded me that I had a high chance of the disease returning ( 50%) due to my advanced stage. He said what he could do was to monitor me closely together with frequent tests and scanning. I did my part by changing my lifestyle and eating habit. I started excercising regularly, eating more nutritious food by following the principle of more veggies ( especially mushrooms and tomatoes) and less meat. I read a lot of books about eating healthy and note down names of food that may help prevent cancer.I avoid all kinds of deep fried, barbecued, high sugar food. I stick to food with low fat, low sugar and low salt. As stress can be harmful to our body, I keep on reminding myself to relax when coping with adversity. I try to analyse all the visible factors that led to my getting cancer and learn to guard against them. I have been very cautious for the past five years but learn not to over worry about something that is beyond my control.
I believe that a positive attitude can be helpful in recurrence prevention.

Karen

David, the survey sounds like a great idea....not only would we participate, but would look forward to the results of your findings. Since my husband had recurrences, we have definitely cut back on red meat, I make him (yes, pouting and cajoling my specialty) eat more greens. I run broccoli thru the blender to add to the broth for my chicken noodle soup. I do a lot more cooking in olive oil, and we both drink lots of green tea, etc, etc. We both need to get more exercise however. And we are also with Karen in that a positive attitude contributes to a healthier system. My husband never smoked, or chewed, and rarely drinks, so we didn't have to eliminate those possibilities. But like others here said, because he wasn't in the "80%", it was just plain bad luck. What do they say? If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all?
P.S. David, we are in Sarasota, Fl. and have cats too JaneP

The possibility of designing a survey to use on these message boards that would have any scientifically valid results let alone usable information/benefits at all is unlikely. Do you not think the NIH and others have looked at this? There are so many variables that finding commonalities in any small, uncontrolled population would be impossible. There would be enough bias in this to choke a horse. People are genetically predisposed to get an illness or predisposed to be protected from it. We don

I agree that a survey administered here, and not deisgned by someone with expertise in research in this area, is likely to produce more harm than good.

We'd all like to have the magic key to preventing recurrence, and taking better care of one's overall health and diet certainly can't hurt (and makes you feel like you're doing something), but one has to be careful drawing strong conclusions even from the the diet studies, because it is actually very hard to control people's diets so they are usually only correlational in nature (meaning you can't draw firm conclusions about causlity). And there is even conlficting data about whether antioxidants are helpful or harmful.

I'd hate to see someone drawing erroneous conclusions from some kind of survey done here.

Nelie