Clinically cured

pascotty
pascotty Member Posts: 174 Member
edited March 2014 in Head and Neck Cancer #1
Has anyone heard of being clinically cured. I have been in contact with a lady via email and she was due to start treatment soon. She had 40 lymph nodes removed and in a lot of pain. They are now saying she may not need rad or chem as they think she may be clinically cured. Has anyone heard anything about this before. They will make their final decision on Monday whether or not to go ahead with the treatment xxxx

Comments

  • stevenl
    stevenl Member Posts: 587
    #2
    Rad and Chemo
    The reason for my rad and chemo was to completely kill any trace or microscopic leftovers from the neck dissection. My ENT said that he was sure he got all of the cancer and got clean margins during surgery. But they really never gave me a choice, and even if they had I would have opted for the treatments anyway. Hit me with your best shot.

    Best,
    Steve
  • Kent Cass
    Kent Cass Member Posts: 1,898 Member
    #3
    stevenl said:

    Rad and Chemo
    The reason for my rad and chemo was to completely kill any trace or microscopic leftovers from the neck dissection. My ENT said that he was sure he got all of the cancer and got clean margins during surgery. But they really never gave me a choice, and even if they had I would have opted for the treatments anyway. Hit me with your best shot.

    Best,
    Steve

    Agreed
    Must agree 100% with Steven about the C&R. This is SCC we have/had. It's not a guessing game, or something to be half-a----- to play a game with chance. This is C, and the only way to deal with it is to error on the aggressive side of the fight.

    kcass
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #4
    Kent Cass said:

    Agreed
    Must agree 100% with Steven about the C&R. This is SCC we have/had. It's not a guessing game, or something to be half-a----- to play a game with chance. This is C, and the only way to deal with it is to error on the aggressive side of the fight.

    kcass

    Agreed
    In my un-professional opinion....
  • micktissue
    micktissue Member Posts: 430
    #5
    stevenl said:

    Rad and Chemo
    The reason for my rad and chemo was to completely kill any trace or microscopic leftovers from the neck dissection. My ENT said that he was sure he got all of the cancer and got clean margins during surgery. But they really never gave me a choice, and even if they had I would have opted for the treatments anyway. Hit me with your best shot.

    Best,
    Steve

    Same with me
    I was told at first that my treatment might end with surgery. To have that happen the cancer would have had to have been "completely" contained within the lymph. As it happened I had micro extracapslular extension (some cancer coming outside the lymph capsule). That is pretty much automatic for C&R. Complicating matters was the unknown primary.

    If I had had no extension then I could have opted for no C&R with relatively no greater chance of recurrence than if I also had C&R. Recurrence is the big problem with H&N cancers. The C&R is generally used to shrink known tumors and kill micro mets to make sure recurrence doesn't happen. It's rare, I'd say, that treatment ends with surgery.

    Best,

    Mick
  • Hondo
    Hondo Member Posts: 6,636 Member
    #6
    Skiffin16 said:

    Agreed
    In my un-professional opinion....

    Me too


    I too must agree but like John my opinion is un-professional and just coming from a survivor

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