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Assessment

      Located in north west London, Mount Vernon Hospital is a centre of excellence for the treatment of various types of cancer, and shares its site with the world famous GRAY Institute for cancer research. It has the added advantage for me of being within fifteen minutes drive from my home. After my diagnosis I was anxious to proceed as quickly as possible. In most cases early diagnosis and treatment greatly improves the chances of a successful recovery  so, naturally, I was impatient to start. On the seventeenth of July, the morning of my initial appointment, we drove the short distance to the hospital; a journey with which I would become very familiar in the coming months. After minimal delay we were called into a consulting room where a group of five or six people were gathered. The group comprised a surgical consultant ( the one in the smart suit ) and his team of supporting medical specialists including registrars and nurses. Everyone was friendly and smiling which helped to reduce the anxiety I was feeling. After brief introductions, the consultant surgeon started to explain the treatment options open to me for my particular tumour, which had been staged, as I later found out, as a T4 N2b M0 .

He explained that, due to the position of the tumour, at the base of my tongue, the surgical option would mean radical surgery involving removal of my whole tongue and voice box. I could only imagine the profound effect this would have on my subsequent daily life and conveyed my gloomy thoughts to the surgeon. Much to my relief he agreed that the surgical option would not be his recommended primary action at this stage and he asked another doctor to explain an alternative option.

  The next person to speak was the clinical oncologist in the team. She proposed  to kill the tumour using radical X-ray radiotherapy, and was very positive that this was a realistic goal. I knew very little about radiotherapy at that time but it certainly sounded a less aggressive method of achieving the desired result and therefore more attractive as an option. I asked if there was a chemotherapy option but was told that it has been found to be less effective against tumours of the tongue. We were all soon agreed then that radiotherapy was the preferred primary treatment option and detailed planning would commence without delay. I was greatly encouraged by the attitude and approach of the clinical team. My wife and I left the room in a much more hopeful frame of mind than on arrival earlier.