Squamous Cell Carcinoma

I had a very large lump in the lymph node area located on the right side of my neck midway between my jawbone and collarbone.  The lump seemed to appear at the onset of the flu and stayed for four months.  

Recently, I had it removed and was stunned to learn it was a squamous cell carcinoma!  My throat, esphogas, and vocal cords looked fine.  A couple of lymph nodes near the "lump" were clean.  The next step is to locate the primary cancer and I will have my tonsil area biopsied and I have an appointment scheduled with doctors to discuss chemo and radiation treatments, which I'm assuming - at this point - will involve a body scan first to determine where this cancer is.

How can they tell if a squamous cell is secondary and what can I expect in terms of survival?  I have a list of questions prepared for my next meeting with the doctor but I just want to hear if anyone out there has experienced this kind of cancer - what does it mean? 

I was told that the cells of our lymph nodes have a certain look under the microscope. They do not look like squamous cell carcinoma cells. When they look under the microscope they can easily tell the difference.

 There is a very small margin of error for this with fine-needle biopsy, but it seems in your case this check was done after they removed the lymph node - the margin of error in this case is - practically - negligible.

The PET scan will find any abnormal lymph node that is larger than 5mm. (Based upon the fact that abnormal lymph nodes take up substantially more sugar.) Based on this, they can vary the drug choice of the chemotherapy and the radiation target.

I had a very similar ordeal a year ago (large lymph node on one side), in my case they could not find the primary tumor - this happens about 5-10% of the cases. I got chemo with cisplatin and general radiation to the affected side of my neck.

Good luck to you! The treatments are very rough, but we do recover once they are done. 

On 5/14/2008 liltoflaughter wrote:

I had a very large lump in the lymph node area located on the right side of my neck midway between my jawbone and collarbone.  The lump seemed to appear at the onset of the flu and stayed for four months.  

Recently, I had it removed and was stunned to learn it was a squamous cell carcinoma!  My throat, esphogas, and vocal cords looked fine.  A couple of lymph nodes near the "lump" were clean.  The next step is to locate the primary cancer and I will have my tonsil area biopsied and I have an appointment scheduled with doctors to discuss chemo and radiation treatments, which I'm assuming - at this point - will involve a body scan first to determine where this cancer is.

How can they tell if a squamous cell is secondary and what can I expect in terms of survival?  I have a list of questions prepared for my next meeting with the doctor but I just want to hear if anyone out there has experienced this kind of cancer - what does it mean? 

 

 

My husband just completed his radiation treatment after a very similar experience to yours.  His surgeon was very persistent and knew exactly where the 'hotspot' was expected to be - in his tonsil area (his tonsils were removed as a child).  He finally found the cells and as he described it, it was a "small cancer that they were treating very aggressively".   He is four weeks out of radiation and his radiation oncologist has a 90% recovery rate among her patients and they expect him to live a long life. He is now 60.  Do be prepared that it is a very rough treatment, but you will read that though by day 20 or so of radiation you won't want to finish treatment - you MUST be strong and get through it.  You'll have your life cancer free and your family will thank you for being so brave.  My husband opted not to have a feeding tube, so he has lost a lot of weight.  His biggest problem was he developed three bouts with Thrush due to his having to take some antibiotics along the way.  The effects of the thrush were actually worse than the pain in his throat. And he developed severe mucositis.  You will see some of my postings along the way.  BUT HE GOT THROUGH IT and yesterday he ate an entire cheesecake!  He didn't lose his taste, and his dry mouth is not as severe as some report.  He did take mega doses of pain medication. We have to fatten him up, now, he wasn't overweight when he started.  He also was given Cetuximab, because he only has one kidney and couldn't go the Cisplatin route.  Cetuximab comes with it's own lovely side effects - you don't lose your hair or throw up, you just simply develop the worst case of teenage acne from head to torso for about three weeks! But they told him the more severe the reaction, the better an indicator it is.   AGAIN, YOU WILL GET THROUGH THIS, even when you think you won't.  Be strong. 

We were lucky that we have an outstanding team of doctors at Huntsman Cancer Hospital in Salt Lake City.   All of our prayers are with you and your family. 

Don't be a stranger to these message boards - it got me and my husband through some very rough patches. 

Gwen

God Bless you and your family!  Thank you for your response.  I can see the value of this message board!  

Monday I have surgery to biopsy my tonsil area - my tonsils were removed when I was 18 and the following Thursday I meet with the oncologist for an assessment and probably more testing.  They do suspect the primary is in the tonsil area.

Quite a change of lifestyle - I, too, am 60 and a widowed single-mom to a 19 year old boy who wants to be involved with this process.  We will get through this and I thank you so much for your honesty.  I suspected the treatments would be rough and I know that I will want to say "STOP" - AND, I will not stop because I want to live a long life.

We are getting organized this week and pulling together our support group.  God, family, friends.....Isn't that what life is truly about?  When something like this hits home, life really condenses to what is important.  

On 5/15/2008 liltoflaughter wrote:

God Bless you and your family!  Thank you for your response.  I can see the value of this message board!  

Monday I have surgery to biopsy my tonsil area - my tonsils were removed when I was 18 and the following Thursday I meet with the oncologist for an assessment and probably more testing.  They do suspect the primary is in the tonsil area.

Quite a change of lifestyle - I, too, am 60 and a widowed single-mom to a 19 year old boy who wants to be involved with this process.  We will get through this and I thank you so much for your honesty.  I suspected the treatments would be rough and I know that I will want to say "STOP" - AND, I will not stop because I want to live a long life.

We are getting organized this week and pulling together our support group.  God, family, friends.....Isn't that what life is truly about?  When something like this hits home, life really condenses to what is important.  

 

 

You are so right. God, family, friends.  Sometimes you don't realize the value until you need to.   I hope your son is open to reading these postings. Let him help you - we caregivers really want to. It will be difficult because he is your son and young. I had difficulty even letting my grown children who live nearby help out - didn't want to burden them.  But I'm THE MOM.  So in your preparations, and while you still have some good energy, try to see that he has at least someone (maybe one of the nurses at your chemo or radiology) that he can talk to.  The nurses are just wonderful shoulders.  And keeping in touch with us on the 'boards will help him.  If you or he ever want someone to email when you're low....

 . Good luck to you.  It may not seem like it, but you will wake up one morning and be on the mend.

Gwen

"Lilt":

Best wishes with your upcoming procedure. Your head is probably spinning with all kinds of thoughts at a time like this.  I understand-- I've been through it myself.  I went through the whole deal after diagnosis in April 06 when the lump in my right neck turned out to be SCCA.

During the subsequent "exploratory" procedure the docs removed my tonsils as a precaution, but they didn't find the primary tumor where they expected it to be (base of tongue) Instead they found a pea-sized tumor in my right tonsil. Rather than waiting to recover from the tonsilectomy and oral surgery to remove a couple of my molars before having a radical neck dissection, we decided to begin IMRT and chemo ASAP.

I chose to have a chemo port and PEG from the beginning-- I knew things would be difficult and I figured it would be better to have them put in before I really felt bad. Glad I did-- they turned out to be a real help.

After 7 weeks of that "fun" and 2 months recovery, I finally had my neck surgery in Oct 06. I've been "clean" 19 months.

So, if you have any questions or just need a first-person perspective I'll be glad to help if I can.

 BTW- this is the first time I've ever posted anything on line. Sorry if I've run on too long, but I tend to be "chatty".

God Bless You and your family.