Hi David,
There are many different types of chemo. One type that is used a lot with head and neck cancer is Cisplatin or Platinol which is a radiation enhancer. I know people with other forms of cancer that are being successfully treated with chemotherapy only. In my case I had 2 treatments
of Cisplatin (I don't think I would have lived through any more! lol) The oncologist told me that the radiation was THE tool for killing the cancer, not the chemo. In fact, the chemo only gave me a couple of percentage points of improvement in the odds. There was a recent study done that also stated the benefit of Cisplatin was marginal at best.

This site has a current listing of FDA approved oncology drugs:

http://www.fda.gov/cder/cancer/druglistframe.htm

And then there was this study from John Hopkins:

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press/2002/MAY/020518.htm

Your Canadian docs may have read this.

Many times combinations of chemo agents are used and many times they are used in as an adjunct to surgery and/or radiation.

Chemo is a very complex subject and many advances in cancer treatment are being made here all the time.

Regards, Gary Allsebrook