Radiotherapy or not

Hi Mike welcome to our small community group. I am also a keen cyclist took me just under a year to get back to doing what i was doing previously partly due to treatment finishing August so by time I felt human it was approaching winter . There’s a life to be had after ward but if course the decision is yours I would  have a long talk with my oncologist as to how the  cancer would progress and how rapidly. Radiotherapy is hard but the side effects don’t last forever in most cases. 
Difficult  decisions , we’re all here if yi7 need anything)ng 

Hazel 

Big thanks….well done you!

Hi Mike, welcome from me. I was of the mind that I wanted to throw everything at the cancer, to give myself the best chance for a cure.  I had 5 out of 6 chemo and 30 RT sessions. The treatment is pretty brutal; however, it does come with a high cure rate. Like Hazel has said the decision is yours, do have a chat with the oncologist. All the best with what you decide to do.

Ray.

Mike B said:

I have unknown primary H&N tumour parotid gland

Hi Mike.do you mean there was cancer in the parotid lymph node but they didn’t find the primary? 
If you want my honest opinion I would throw everything at it. If you don’t allow radiotherapy to kill the primary it’s likely to pop up somewhere else, maybe your lungs then you’re on palliative care only. You’re 71. Hardly old these days. I’m 73 and five years clear next week. 
It’s rubbish treatment but worth it. 

Hi Mike and welcome from me.  Have a look at my profile for some background.  You are facing a difficult decision and only you can fully evaluate the risks/benefits and post treatment quality of life.

They have eventually found a tumour at my the base of tongue having chased it for 4 years. Until last month my personal view of my situation was to hold off RT (and chemo) until I had a target to go for.  After 4 years, and a number of false starts, I now have that target and further surgery, whilst an option, was not recommended.  Having had 4 years a great quality of life - eating, sailing, travelling to the end of the world; literally - I am glad I made the choices I did with the evidence the MDT provided to me.  The MDT fully supported those choices and they would have been their recommendation is I had not reached them myself.

I am not advocating not having further treatment; just saying in my case it has worked in the full knowledge that I was in a watching game for a relatively high % chance of the cancer making itself known once again.

That’s right. Unknown primary that was Lilly from skin 

quality of life though. Hearing eye brain! It’s a lot to risk

Mike B said:

Hearing eye brain! It’s a lot to risk

Is that what your oncologist has said? 
Sorry to bombard you with questions … what sort of surgery  have you had? 

Mike B said:

Unknown primary that was Lilly from skin

Please pin your oncologist down as it sounds entirely different from the HPV + sort of cancer that everybody in this thread has had to deal with. 

I had surgery: right superficial, parotidectomy, and right, selective neck dissection, Not HPV . 
Of course the risks are many as it’s the side of the head. I’d like proton therapy if it was appropriate and available 

thanks

Mike B said:

I’d like proton therapy if it was appropriate and available 

It is, at two centres in the U.K. Maybe ask for a referral? I hope you get somewhere with this. I really do. Much is made of “Cure” and QOL can be sidelined. 

Hi Has Dani says quality of life is an important part of any decision making. Sorry cant be more specific as my cancer was HPV driven, but a frank discussion with yiur oncologist will be beneficial to you I think. 

Hazel x