Pat's Diagnosis

PAT’S DIAGNOSIS
Pat has squamous cell carcinoma on his left lateral tongue (not for long) : ) It is categorized as head and neck cancer.

The approach is the following:

SURGERY

The surgery has two parts – neck and tongue. First they will be doing a prophylactic neck dissection on the left side of Pat’s neck. This means they are removing the lymph nodes mostly as a precautionary measure. The doctors do not believe the cancer is in the lymph nodes, but if the cancer were to go somewhere, the lymph nodes are where it would go next. They will be removed and sent to pathology to double check for cancer.

Secondly, they will do a partial removal of the tongue (approximately 30%). What they will do is cut around the cancerous area and then go beyond by one centimeter to make sure they get it all. During the surgery the outer edges of the removed tissue will be analyzed, again, to make sure they get it all. Pat’s speech will be affected, but he will go through speech therapy.

Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll do my best to answer them.