Recurrent Cancer

My husband had squamous cell lymph nodes in his neck 2 years ago.  They have now recurred on both the left and right side.  He is having surgery at Hopkins the end of this month and they will do a bilateral neck dissection.   He had a PET scan, and the areas in the neck were the only thing that "lit up".  They are not recommending either radiation or chemo to follow this.  I am aware that cancer can be elsewhere in the body but will not show up on a PET scan until it reaches a certain size.   Can anyone who has been through this make an educated guess about the possibility that this has happened?  I can understand about no radiation but I don't understand about the no chemo.

Hi,

I would suggest a secong opinion.

I agree to the 2nd opinion. I have heard that no further treatments can be considered in cases of malignancy just affecting ONE side, with just one node, under a certain size. Best of luck!! Gayle

Recurrent after 2 years, that's rough.  I'm almost at the 2 year mark.  It's hard not to think about the fact that it could come back.

Did he have chemo and radiation the first time?  Did they find the primary?

He started out with an enlarged lymph node on the left side of his neck.  They removed and biopsied it.  He had both chemo and radiation.  However, he did not complete the course (we did not agree on this at all).  Now he has at least 3 on the left side of his neck and at least 1 on the right side of his neck.  As far as they could tell, the primary started in the back of the throat where his tonsils would have been except they were removed when he was a child.  They are going to do a radical dissection on both sides of his neck.  My fear is that since he has had at least specks of cancerous nodes there for 2 years, and no doubt they have been draining, don't you think it is reasonable to assume he has very,very tiny cancerous cells somewhere else in his body?

Try not to do the "what ifs". It doesn't serve any real purpose. Just go w/ what you do know, stay on top of your follow-up checkups, do all the right things , and let the chips fall where they may.

Everyone is an individual w/ different circumstances. Just keep him on track doing all the things he needs to be doing.

Day by Dad is the motto.

 

Good luck and God bless