Hi. justa bit of history first...sorry
My Husband (39yrs)noticed a tenderness in his bottom lip late dec 2006, and assumed i had bit him..lol. It soon ulcerated and grew at a alarming rate, promting him to doctors, did a small biopsy which showed a well-diffrentiated SCC, we then meet up with a plastic surgeon, who took one look at it and declared it wasnt a SCC, beacause
a)didnt look lke one.
b)his age
c)was more on the inside of lip and he isnt in the sun.
d)grown too fast for that length time..aprrox 3months
and heavy smoking was NOT a factor?????.
I queried the pathology to the surgeon, he said ÿes but they didnt take into account husbands history, and that HE the surgeon was seeing these evry day and it wouldnt be in someone so young.but would do a full excisional biopsy anyway.
Yesterday hubby went to g.p to get sticthes out and yes it is a stage 3 SCC.
im feeling very confused as Noone has checked the rest of his oral cavity out, and his g.p thought he saw a ülcer in his throat 1.5yr ago and told him he had a gullet ulcer, and prescribed him lansoprazole.and hasnt been checked out since,just kept re-medicating. Im wondering if this need to be investigated further, No camera tests or anything to properly diagnose, just a assumption that it is a gullet ulcer. could the 2 be connected?
plus...everything i have read on the net, says a stage 3 is 4cm in size and/or spread to lymphnodes. we have had no c.t scans, dosent appear to be any node enlargement so why the stage 3? depth?(about 2cm aross) Has gone into nerves and blood vessels tho.
what is the 5yr prognosis for stage 3 lip? what happens after 5 yrs?if gone, gone?
SHould more be happening? biopsy show a clear margain of normal cells, so is that all?
so sorry fot the Really long post, just really confused and concerened, that not enough is being done.
Thankyou, for your time.

Hello Chesyre

If the lymph nodes are not involved, the lip surgery is all that is needed. A lip cancer would not be related to a lesion in the gullet if there should ever be one as it would drain (spread) to the lymph nodes. Ask your doctor to explain the staging. The prognosis for a lip cancer is good.

from CancerHelp UK's Statistics and prognosis for mouth cancers

quote:

Survival rates for mouth cancers have risen slightly over the last 20 years. Of all those people diagnosed with cancer of the mouth and oropharynx, about 55 out of every 100 diagnosed (55%) live for at least 5 years. About 41 out of every 100 people diagnosed (41%) will live for at least 10 years. For oropharyngeal cancer alone, about 35 out of every 100 diagnosed (35%) will live at least 5 years.

Rates for individual mouth cancers include

• Lip cancer – nearly 90 out of 100 people diagnosed (89%) will be alive 5 years later
  
• Tongue cancer – Just over 40 out of 100 people diagnosed (42%) will be alive 5 years later
  
• Oral cavity – this includes all other mouth cancers (not lip or tongue). Nearly 50 out of every 100 people diagnosed (47%) will be alive 5 years later.

Do bear in mind that we have not included 5 year survival rates for individual stages of these cancers. Because these cancers are quite rare, it is difficult to get reliable figures. Generally speaking, the earlier a cancer is found and treated, the better the outcome is likely to be. So 5 year survival rates for the early stages (stage 0, 1 and 2) of these cancers will be higher than the overall statistics. And the statistics for the later stages (stage 3 and 4) will be lower.

Hope that helps.

Best wishes
Vinod

thankyou, for taking the time to reply to me.
hope you had a lovely day.