Hello this is my first post on the forum.
My 81 year old mother has recently been diagnosed with Stage 4 Squamous Cell Carcinoma in the pallet of her mouth.
We had an initial meeting with the consultant and was advised that an operation was needed to remove the cancer from the mouth and Lymph nodes in her neck. A second meeting with the consultant discussed the same operation being possible unfortunately we could not get her MRI and CT scans done before this meeting so a third meeting was arranged after we had done the scans.
Having seen the scans the consultant advised that as the cancer had spread along the nerves in her upper mouth towards the base of the skull. An operation was not going to be possible as it would be very difficult to remove the cancer from that far up in the nerves. They would not perform an operation that was not going to completely remove the cancer. We have been offered a treatment of palliative RadioTherapy and there is a possibility of having immunoTherapy. Although the Oncologist was concerned about my mothers medical history as she has Coeliac disease, Lichen Planus and has also had problems with Anemia. We are unsure at present if she will be able to have the Immunotherapy.
It has been a big blow to find out an operation is not possible as there is no cure without this. We haven't seen the MRI scans and were a bit numb in the meeting with the consultant as it was such a big shock to take in. He said the cancer was stage 4 but I don't really know the extent of the spread or how aggressive the cancer is moving. It's therefore hard to know how long my mother has left. This is difficult as I have two sisters that live abroad. I'm just wondering if there are any questions we can ask to find out more and to be completely sure that an operation is not possible? I just want to make sure I do every thing I can to help my Mum.
Sorry for the long post.
Kind regards,
Hi BKenobi and a very warm welcome to our corner of the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
Although I've had skin cancer, I don't have any experience with the type your mum has. However, I noticed that your post hadn't had any replies yet so responding to you will 'bump' it back to the top of the discussion list again.
You might find this information from Macmillan on making treatment decisions helpful in formulating some questions to ask. Your mum might want to ask for a second opinion and this information goes through the advantages and disadvantages of doing that.
Let us know how your mum gets on
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
