I was given two options for treatment

[Tab]

13. No offense, but I forget the original diagnosis.

Throat cancer?

In my case (colon cancer) I had radiation and chemo to shrink the tumor, then surgery to remove it, and I was basically on chemo afterwards (with a brief episode of spot radiation a few years later when it metastized to my lungs).

I don't know your diagnosis specifically, or what, so I can't suggest an answer. I would ask them if they thought the surgery would clear the cancer and the margin (the area around the cancer). If so, you might wipe it out. But in my experience, I've only been through the cancer tunnel once. The oncologists do this all the time with all sorts of patients, and obviously trained for this. So I usually defer to their recommendation.

They didn't recommend one over the other? Or is the surgery more complete, but with a more radical result?

Without knowing that, I couldn't suggest one or the other, but I wish you the best. If you want to post more we could maybe discuss more, but I wouldn't do that without having a better information.

Only thing I would warn you about is to make sure the radiation and surgery (if you choose that route) is to make sure they're tightly coordinated. In my case, before I moved to my current cancer center, the place that I was going to (highly reputable) did not have any one person actually handling my case. We did the radiation, but the surgery was screwed up (scheduling-wise) and when I ultimately had sugery, it was far more invasive than planned, because even after you stop radiation you keep cooking. That's no reason not to do the radiation/surgery thing, just make sure they're properly timed to make it most effective.

Wishing you the best.

- Tab