Tongue Cancer

At age 87 I have been diagnosed with tongue cancer, Stage 1 and have been offered the following treatments Surgery to remove part or the whole tongue which would have to be reconstructed uanble to eat  for 6 months  and also unable to talk,Radiotherapy 5 days a week for 6 weeks with side effects some severe.or do nothing a wait for any warning  signs that the cancer is active and could sprread the receive :palliative radiation 2 hours per week.I am looking for proto therapy,has anyone got experience with this.?

Look forward to feedback on this,many thanks in advance

Parents
  • This seems a little drastic for Stage 1? 7 years ago at 70 I was treated for "T2 NO SCC" with simple laser excision, no neck incision, no additional treatment. 

    All fine until a few weeks ago, possible recurrence, referred back to hospital specialists. 

    Bought 7 years for very little inconvenience. If now "worse" I'll not accept major surgery nor lengthy disabling treatment.

    Be sure to balance gains and losses.

    Good luck.

    Dave.

  • Thanks for your update,did you spend anytime in hospital.I have now been offered 1 hours surgery under local anaesthetic  to remove small but   hard cancer spot on tongue  they will not touch the pre-cancerous. no radiotherapy as there is a danger of losing teech and  jawbone damage

  • For the laser excision I had general anaesthetic, presumably because of precise location of tumour, and was in overnight. If spot on tongue, then I guess knife rather than laser! 

    Sounds as good an outcome as one could hope for!

    Good luck.

    Dave.

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