Larry I was told the same thing about surgery. What they said was "its not the best way to treat this" what I heard was "its inoperable, too big and complicated to cut out, you'll have to take your chances with radiation and chemo."

Rads and chemo are very effective with this kind of cancer. They like to keep an option in reserve, and while its not ideal to have surgery after rads, it is an option.

Rads and chemo are a tough road, but doable. It sounds like you are now in good hands medically. Take a notebook and/or a second set of ears and ask lots of questions. Your body will hit you with all sorts of surprises in the next few months. Every cancer journey is different, but you'll find many good people here who have been over the same bumps in the road.