Thanks @Sister, @youngdogmum and @kmakm for the welcome and
kind thoughts.
I am more into the <0.1% category, once the actual
make-up of the tumour is taken into consideration. Invasive metaplasia carcinoma with
mesenchymal differentiation (30% poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma,
70% fibromatosis-like metaplastic carcinoma).
Outlook appears to be mixed, lower than standard odds in
the short term, but about par in the longer term. Sometimes chemo-resistant (but still worth
the effort in my opinion, in case it is not), and appears to have a tendency to
prefer the blood-path rather than the lymph-path to ‘get around’. Some studies indicate a propensity for local
recurrences rather than metastatic, but some of the newer data does seem to be showing
up a higher metastatic incidence. But
the sample sizes are really too small to determine any reliable statistics to
work with.
I hadn’t yet directly quizzed the oncologist regarding
the TC choice, but it may be the case (from online searches) that this is
potentially more effective for the cellular mix they’re dealing with. One positive - after only the first round, I now have much smoother skin on my face, neck, arms and legs. Still have the ‘age spots’ but most of the
raised scaly bits have smoothed out. There has to be some up-side with what our
bodies are going through :)