Cancerwise

Dr. Vicente Valero, a breast medical oncologist at UT MD Anderson, kept my late mother alive for 25 years — even after a stage 4 metastatic breast cancer diagnosis. Urologists there also treated my late father successfully for prostate cancer.  

So, when a biopsy revealed the source of an ongoing issue in my mouth might be squamous cell carcinoma — a type of oral cancer — I didn’t hesitate: I called UT MD Anderson right away.

My stage 4 oral cancer diagnosis  

By the time I had my first consultation at UT MD Anderson, three Austin dentists, two periodontists and an oral surgeon had all overlooked my oral cancer. Not even Dr. Neil Gross, a well-respected head and neck surgeon at UT MD Anderson, was convinced of the primary site of the cancer until my first exploratory surgery.  

But cancer is exactly what the swollen lymph node beneath my chin turned out to be.  

The cancer started in a non-healing tooth socket. My gums never really healed properly after a tooth extraction in 2017. By the time I was diagnosed with oral cancer a few years later, it had grown deep into my jawbone. That made it stage 4.

My stage 4 oral cancer treatment 

Nobody ever wants to hear they have cancer — least of all stage 4. But after watching my mother live with it for 25 years, I knew it didn’t have to be the worst thing that ever happened to me. I trust UT MD Anderson. And, my sister reminded me that I knew how to do this. So, I took a deep breath and got on with it. 

To treat the cancer, Dr. Gross recommended surgery followed by chemoradiation. He’d remove the diseased bone, the swollen lymph node and some others nearby to test them for cancer. Then, plastic surgeon Dr. Mark Villa would use a part of my leg bone to reconstruct my jaw. Finally, I’d receive six weeks of chemoradiation under the joint supervision of radiation oncologist Dr. David Rosenthal and medical oncologist Dr. Maura Gillison. 

That sounded good to me. I had the surgery at UT MD Anderson on March 27, 2023, and stayed in the hospital for 10 days. I remained on a feeding tube for about three weeks and started chemoradiation after recovering at home for a bit longer. I finished all that up in early June 2023.