Hi new here but not new to cancer I had throat cancer 12 years ago and had a really hard time with the treatment.
Three weeks ago it was confirmed that my throat cancer had returned after 10 years, though my GP using the present day of phone consultation to diagnose my symptoms as a throat infection and prescribed antibiotics, fortunately I see an ENT guy every year and can contact him directly, which I did and arranged an appointment, he did not like what he saw and a biopsy was arranged which confirmed the recurrence.
In the intervening three weeks I had had a bloody noisy MRI scan an a CT scan.
Today I had my first meeting with an oncologist meeting fortunately my ENT guy Andy Evans was there, a man I trust implicitly not to bullsh*t me.
Anyway it was mixture of good and bad news, the good news is I am not having surgery and I cannot have radiation as I have already reach my lifetime limit so my only option is immunotherapy with a drug called pembrolizumab if you want to Google, I certainly will, lol.
But my cancer is playing silly buggers and has gone into hiding and the symptoms I had have disappeared and it seems that I cannot start treatment until the cancer is a bit more visible.
So I will have to wait another three months for a further scan before treatment can start unless the symptoms return and if that happens then we are go. Thing is that there is only a 30% success rate so if it fails that is it and the side effects can be quite horrendous. I still have issues so the question is do I want to take the risk of A) it not working and B) having to possibly contend with unpleasant side effects?
I was impressed with the mass of information I left the cancer centre with, my first experience information was very thin on the ground, I was also given contact numbers again this did not happen 10 years ago, in fact once you stepped out of the cancer centre you were considered your GP’s responsibility which was ridiculous as cancer is a specialist medical issue.
Not looking for sympathy posts here thanks, sh*t happens as they say but if anyone has had immunotherapy I would love to hear their experiences.
On the plus side I should be fit and able to play, Far Cry 6, The Division Heartlands and Dying light 2 which is a major win. 
Hi Glenn. It’s Dani.
There are a few folk here on Pembro and a couple on Cemiplimab which is another checkpoint inhibitor. I’ll tag little-fi and Michael RSA who might pop on to say hi.
Dani
Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019
