This message is for Brian Hill. I am a good friend of a woman with stage 4 squamous oral cancer . She needs a second surgery in her mouth and neck as the cancer came back after the ist surgery a year ago. She has a choice of two surgeons, one who prefers to use wrist or stomach skin for grafting and one who prefers to use breast tissue. She is having a very difficult time with this decision. Do you have any info or can you suggest someone she (or I) can contact who has some input on this issue. She needs to get going with her surgery but seems to be "stuck " on this issue. Thanks for any help you can give! Please email me directly at [email protected]

Well, I will offer you an observation, but without knowing more details, it may only address one aspect of your question. There are several reasons that intra-oral grafts are used. The most obvious is to replace tissue bulk which has been lost due to the surgery. Muscle tissue is grafted to help reconstruct the tongue and floor of the mouth for instance. Given the areas in which these two doctors are suggesting grafts from, the reason for the grafting is likely different. After a surgery of this type, it used to be common to let the tissues of the mouth heal in on their own, this is called "by secondary intent"... the body just heals the area the best that it can using the tissue type which is common to that area. This isn

Sheri, just today I spoke with a head and neck surgeon and two plastic surgeons. They are planning to use skin from my "off" arm for the graft, which makes a lot of sense to me. Somehow I see a donation from an appendage as being less invasive. Silly, but it works for me. I wish your friend much luck.

Joanna

Brian-thanks much for your long thought ful reply about tissue grafts. And thanks to Joanna also. I have forwarded the info to my friend Arlene.
Sheri