At the beginning of January my husband was seen by the ENT service at the hospital as he had a growth in his mouth stopping him from eating or talking properly. The Intern took a piece for an urgent biopsy and then arranged for follow up treatment which included a laryngoscopy the following week. During that procedure the surgeon removed two tumours from his mouth (one 5x5cm and one 3x4cm!) and sent them off for biopsy. A week later we were told that the results of the first biopsy were inconclusive and that we would have to wait for the biopsies on the actual masses. During the consultation the word cancer was bandied about but no actual evidence of cancer was given. We weregiven today as a follow up appointment but it was cancelled yesterday by the Doctor as she said the biopsies were being reviewed  as they still don't have a reliable result.

We are 4 weeks down the line from the first biopsy and we still have no definitive answer on these tumours. I have read that, if biopsies take a long time it generally isn't good news. It worries us that, if the tumours are malignant, 4 weeks have passed with no treatment and surely time is of the essence in that respect?

My husband has also had a CT scan and MRI but we haven't been given any information as to the results of those tests either.

Should we be worried? Or should we be taking the tactic of no news being good news? How often are tumours so difficult to identify as either benign or malignant?

I hope someone can maybe  re-assure me/us.

Thank you for taking the time to read my "essay".