JJ Maxwell, diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth in May, lists what he learned: be persistent about scheduling and ask for cancellations, push for comprehensive genetic testing, read the NCCN standard-of-care flow charts yourself (a free account works for non-professionals), talk to someone who has had the same surgery, and note that AI chatbots he asked tended to downplay his symptoms. He later added a tip from a commenter: if you are within a few hours of a major cancer center, go there; he says the biggest benefit he saw at MD Anderson was speed.

It was the most-upvoted story on Hacker News this week.