My husband is D1, T1 base of tongue w/ cervcial node metastasis. He has had 4 cycles chemotherpy (5FU, Doxetaxel, Cisplatin) and 28 daily chemo/radiation sessions at a Long Beach, CA hospital. The option now is to continue with a more focused Tomo Therapy for 21/2 additional weeks OR do the Brachytherapy for 4 days. Brachytherapy involves hospitalization and surgical insertion of rods and then dropping of pellets directly into the tongue and cervical node tumors, including a temporary tracheostomy. We are trying to decide. Has anyone faced this scenario?
The dr. explained that the survival is the same for each and that brachytherapy has almost been replaced by the Tomotherapy for tumors such as my husband's. He said there are no final statistics/studies yet because brachytherapy has been the protocol for 35 years and the newer Tomo therapy is not used in many places in the U.S.
Comments appreciated.