Hi Falcon

I have nothing much to add except to let you know that my Alex underwent a similar regimen as you can see from my signature. We found out at the end of treatment that he was HPV+ which was a welcome surprise as he was a heavy smoker/drinker and we assumed his tumour was smoking caused.

Whilst many undergo chemo/radiation alone, (that's where you have chemo and radiation at the same time either once a week or once every 3 weeks), the addition of induction chemo (the "veterinary" dose chemo you describe) has shown to be similar to surgery plus radiation in terms of survival and recurrence. We opted for this as surgery wasn't an option.

It might have been a bit of overkill - we will never know, but better this than discovery or development of mets down the track, possibly watching Alex die and wondering the whole time if we could have saved him if we had done the induction chemo.

Good luck with the rest of your treatment, keep us posted, and keep asking questions. One of the great things about this site besides it being obviously great for support and information, is that you will realise that whatever you are going through has happened to someone else before and you will hopefully be reassured that your reactions (physical and emotional) are not uncommon.

Karen