Hello My name is Brandon, I have had squamous cell carcinoma in my larynx at the age of 13 hpv+, radiation therapy had cured me and i was disease free for 11+ years. Then last year at 24 i was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the trachea, I have had radiation, chemo, and a tracheal resection surgery, also lymph nodes were removed 2 out of 5 cancerous. It has been almost a year and i am still disease free on my scans and scopes. But since the beginning of my first ct scan i have had lymph nodes higher in number and size on the left side where my tumor was, the largest in size being 8 mm, the shape or size has been unchanged for 7 months. Could these permanently swollen lymph nodes be due to damage from radiation/ surgery? or are they likely to still be cancerous and cause recurrence? also the largest one that is 8 mm by my sub mandibular gland if i move my eye a certain way i can feel it twitch. Should my doctor remove these lymph nodes to increase my chance for non recurrence? i am 25 with a newborn baby and been through so much, i am terrified it will return and i will never have a normal life. any advice/knowledge would be greatly appreciated. much love, thank you.
Your team should be all over this Brandon; it's them that should be giving you the answers to your questions rather than a peer support group. Have they not biopsied any of the glands? Astounded by your story, just not good enough.
Metastatic SCC diagnosed 8th October 2013. Modified radical neck dissection November, thirty-five radiotherapy fractions with 2xCisplatin chemo Jan/Feb 2014. Recurrence on larynx diagnosed July 2020 so salvage laryngectomy in September 2020.
Hello Brandon , I agree with MikeO on this and your team should be investigating further, scan are very good but cannot pick up everything. If these nodes are causing you discomfort then you should have the. offer of them being removed, they could also be blocked or infected due to previous surgery and treatment. Please make an appointment to see your consultant so he can re-scan and also take a biopsy of the area., it could also be scar tissue from previous surgery. I can understand your concern with being young and with a newborn..you should be getting better treatment like checkups every month or three months, so please contact them a.s.a.p just for piece of mind, best wishes , take care..
Chris x
Its sometimes not easy but its worth it !
Re-reading back my reply this morning Brandon and I hope it didn't come across as telling you off, it was a bit brusque; I certainly didn't mean you shouldn't have been asking the questions on here so I'm sorry if it came across that way. I just found it quite shocking that you find yourself in the position you do.
Metastatic SCC diagnosed 8th October 2013. Modified radical neck dissection November, thirty-five radiotherapy fractions with 2xCisplatin chemo Jan/Feb 2014. Recurrence on larynx diagnosed July 2020 so salvage laryngectomy in September 2020.
