Let's just put it this way. I would much rather be alone than have company of any age enduring this OC at any time. The less we have the better. One to remember.

And yes there have been quite a few under 30 and some under 20 in their teens.

It amazes me that my Dr. did not think it necessary to have radiation and chemo. I even asked my ENT about seeing an oncologist and he said he would be glad to refer to me to one, but that they would not do anything since I got clean margins on my last surgery. It is has been six weeks since the surgery. I do not go back to him until JUly 1 and then we schedule the PET scan. I wonder why he said an oncologist would not do anything at this point. I am beginning to wonder if I should have went ahead and had him refer me to an oncologist. I will probably go ahead and do that at my next appt. I sure do not want a reoccurence of this stuff.

Angelia, your case is exactly why a CCC with a multi-disciplinary team looking at your specifics is better than a single ENT or Oral Surgeon -- That's why Tumor Boards exist.

In my case, I started with an ENT who recommended radiation, but not chemo (Don't know why and didn't know enough at the time to ask) -- His feeling was that even though we got clear margins (second time around), we should nuke the area for stuf too small to detect -- He used the analogy that we had a double-barreled shotgun and got the bear with the first shot but shouldn't hesitate to fire the second just in case. Had he not believed in radiation, then I would have gone that way.

Long run for me, it didn't matter because my cancer came back in slightly different fashion (First tumor was external; second was internal, third was external).