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Is it better to do DART Radiation after TORS Surgery or just Follow Up
Head & Neck Cancer | Last Active: May 13 10:07am | Replies (15)Comment receiving replies
I'm just over 2 years post cancer. My tongue cancer surgery included reconstruction and neck dissection with lymph node removal. I healed up great an my speech and swallowing were great. Then came radiation. Radiation fibrosis which has effected my neck and tongue has created real challenges for my speech and swallowing. I was much better off function wise before radiation. If I had your choice I would ask my oncology team if they could describe how they would respond if my cancer returned. Is a 3 month interval often enough to catch the cancer at its early stage? What kind of surgery might be necessary? I would ask for as much detail as possible. I was not given the option. I did the full treatment. But the effects of radiation are like a second disease. They are with you forever. I know some folks on this forum have been able to stop radiation early due to successful treatment. Maybe ask about that as well.
You have so much to consider. Its a tough decision.
You are in my prayers.
Replies to "I'm just over 2 years post cancer. My tongue cancer surgery included reconstruction and neck dissection..."
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@sandy8043
Hi Sandy, thank you for sharing your personal experiences and providing some helpful questions to ask. From what we have gathered so far, should the cancer return, and depending on where it returns, he would possibly need surgery again and he would also need the full radiation treatment and in addition the cure rate falls to ~70% after that. Also, he has sarcoidosis and from what we’ve read, people with this condition have a higher risk of getting cancer compared to the general population. He had to do lung biopsies prior to this surgery to find out if what they were seeing on the scan was the scarring from the sarcoidosis or cancer. So, should there be any visual changes from his last scan, they would have to biopsy for cancer again as well. The radiologist at Mayo has said that most of his patients doing DART at 30 gray, for 2 weeks, 2 x day tolerate the radiation pretty well but there is always that very small percentage left with dry mouth and swallowing issues.
Anyway, congratulations on reaching the 2 year cancer free milestone! I hope that you remain cancer free from here on in. Thank you again for all of your help.