New to Forum with a question

Take the chemo. I was diagnosed with tongue cancer, left lateral. Had surgery and left neck dissection with one affected node. Had 33 rad treatments in my mouth and both sides of my neck. No chemo since cancer was small in lymph node. However, a tumor grew over 2cm during rads on right side of my neck

I had another neck dissection, and now getting another 35 rad treatments with chemo. Much better to have it done the first time. I may have avoided round 2 which has taken its toll on me. Not to mention a lot more time off from work. Chemo sucks but it is less debilitating than rads for me. Good luck.

I was diagnosed with stage 3 tonsil cancer positive for the HPV virus that had spread to one lymp node in Aug 2014. I had surgery to remove the tonsil and was advised against neck disection and chemo since the cancer was positive for the HPV virus and had only spread to one node. I finished 6 1/2 weeks of radiation Nov 21, 2014 and been cancer free since. If his cancer is not caused by the HPV virus, he must take both chemo and radiation, however, if positive for the virus, he could get by with radiation alone. Taking chemo has much severe side effects but will improve prognosis. It is a hard decison to make. 

You and your hubby will be in my prayers.

Arman

My husband was diagnosed with stage 1 tongue cancer in the fall of 2015. The cancer had not spread to any nodes.  He was 40 at time of diagnosis. He did surgery first to remove the tumor. That could have been the end of treatment. But he did radiation and chemo (cisplatin) anyway. His doctors wanted him to hit this as hard as possible now, and being young and otherwise in perfect health, they knew he could handle it. We didn't want to take any chances and wonder if we didn't do all that we could do. So we went for it. He had 6 weeks of rads and 6 chemo treatments. The chemo actually didn't add any additional side effects. And my husband was lucky in that he worked through all of his treatment. Bottom line is that he has had 4 clean scans since the end of treatment (and he doesn't have to be scanned again until the summer), and he is doing great. No regrets. Hit it hard now. Don't be wishing you had later on. That is my advice now.

You didn't specify what type of BOT cancer your husband has so I'm going to assume it is Squamous Cell Carcinoma.  Or SCC as we call it here.  That particular type of oral cancer is approx 90% of all cases diagnosed.  My opinion is to take the advice of the professionals.  Considering they used TORS (transoral robotic system) on him, it tells me you found a very competent team of cancer doctors for your husband.

I too had a BOT tumor with an infected right lymph node that was easily seen on my neck.  Same as your husband, I had surgery via TORS and a month later they did the radical right neck dissection.  The difference was that my cancer was a rare one called Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma.  That type of cancer doesn't respond to chemo so I didn't have it.  Just surgery and radiation.  But if I had SCC like most all the BOT members here I'd get the chemo too.  It comes down to throwing as much as possible at the cancer to get rid of it.  You don't want it coming back so hit it with all the tools they are offering.

I'm sorry to hear of his cancer.  My pain was indescribable and I too lost a lot of weight because I just couldn't swallow anything for weeks.  Please make sure he's hydrated.  That put me back in the hospital after my first week.  It was just so painful to even try.

Welcome to the club no one wants to belong to.  Everyone here helped me keep my spirits up when my pain was at its worst.  See if you can get him to log in and chat.

Tom

Hi everyone. I am new to the group and happy to have found it. I was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer December 16 2011. I had 35 radiation treatments and 5 weeeks of chemotherapy. I really felt that radiation was a lot worse than chemo ( almost all of my side effects were treated with the chemo, the only thing that helped with the radiation was Miles mixture ( this still one of my best friends). I will be considered in complete remission in Febuary. 

     I have so many fears about it coming back, I don"t think I have ever felt like it would not come back. I am a woman and I was 45 when I was diagnosed, these are not the normal things. I was really shocked when I got the when the ENT told me, he was almost 100% sure during the scope. I still remember the look on his face in the recovery room. It really was a trauma and 5 years later I am still shell shocked. That is why I am so glad to have found this group. It seems like it haunts me all of the time. I started to loose a lot of weight again, I have lost around 30 lbs sinice October. The same thing happened when I got cancer. I have some questions I hope you guys can help with. I am sorry I am talking so long.

Is it normal to wonder if you should have had the treatment? I have a real problem with it because of my depression. My Dad died from small cell lung cancer in August 2011 and my Mom really lost it.She started to hate me after this time and 16 months ago said some really horrible things to me. We have not talked since then . I really believe my whole relationship with her was a lie. This hurts so much, I know I am supposed to be grateful I am still alive but I am not. I am living my life waiting to die. I don't seem to get a long with anyone anymore.

Has anyone else had these feelings? I feel so ungrateful and I am sorry to the rest of you for feeling this way.

I feel like I have lost so much and I almost hope the cancer does come back, then I can concentrate on that pain and not the pain I feel right now.

I am so sorry for the pity party, but if anyone can tell me how long it takes for life to get better I would feel so much better.

Thank you.

KayH,

Welcome to the H&N forum, where most of us had the chance to look behind the 3 doors       9surgery, chemo & rads) and each of us had to decide which one’s?

There are some H&N members who just had rads and are fine, others who went that way had a different outcome.

If you are looking for odds, I would go with full assault on the cancer.  I did not want to barely kill it, I wanted to stomp it out of existence.

Do whatever feels right, if your doctor(s) are good they won’t let you make a mistake, but watch for eye rolls.

Matt

I would do what your doctor has said is best. I did everything my surgeon, radiation oncology and chemotherapy oncologist told me to do. My biopsy was September 1, 2016. I was diagnosed with SCC laryngeal a week later. One week later I had as peg tube installed and my dental work done. One more week and I was doing my first chemo (of six @ one per week) on Friday. The following Monday I began the first of 35 radiation treatments ( I had already been fitted for the mask and done the PET scan). Last treatment was November 16, 2016. On December 15, my surgeon said the tumor was gone. He went in with the camera. No residual tumor. I did a CT scan January 3 with due to verify. I am eating, talking, and went back to work on November 30. I feel like my doctors were the best and smartest ever! Do what they say. It is a very hectic two months but you have to go to war. You will win. They know what they are doing if you have a good one and chemo definitely did not hurt my treatment plan. It isn't that bad anyway. I didn't lose my hair. My emotions were kind of off and there was a metallic taste in my mouth. Mine cleared up quickly after the last chemo therapy. I was stage three. My tumor was a T3. I was fortunate that the radiation was done with a Toma Thermal machine. It is state of the art and has minimal collateral damage to the tissues etc around the targeted area. It rotates around you continuously and the beam is shaped to the target as it is moving. Oh it still gets rough, but I healed very fast after the treatments were completed. Again, listen to your radiologist too. Good luck. Get this fixed. God Bless you!  Dan