Surgery only, refused Radiotherapy

Hi MiniT, welcome to the group from me. It's good to hear you are healing well after your surgery. There are a few people on here who have decided not to have RT due to having good margins, there is always the option to have it at a later date if needed. Hopefully someone who chose not to have it will come along to tell you about their case. Stick with us, you can ask any questions or discuss anything you want on here.

Ray.

Thank you.  Your reply is very reassuring.

Hi MiniT. It is great that you have clear margins. I thought that if there are clear margins that radiotherapy was not required. As Ray says there is always the option for radiotherapy later if required. 

Lyn

That's exactly what I did after 2 different sets of surgery for H&N cancer CUP.  No definite target - I saw no reason to use my one shot at CRT. 

I went onto watchful waiting.  Monthly checks.  A few scares then back in late 2023 the cancer once again made itself known with a  target worth tackling with CRT.  Now 2 years post CRT and 6.5 since first diagnosed. 

Even though the margins were clear,  the recommendation was still to have Radiotherapy due to groupings they put people in, dependent on size of lymph node affected by the cancer and other criteria they didn't tell me. So basically they put everyone into low, intermediate and high groupings and they classed me as intermediate. Guessing they just want to be as thorough as possible but is such aggressive treatment really needed. 

MiniT said:

Guessing they just want to be as thorough as possible but is such aggressive treatment really needed. 

We never know. I wasn’t given the option as surgery would have been life changing. Peter’s watch and wait worked for him and the radiotherapy was there when he needed it.