We, my mother, sisters and I, learned this week that Momma has stage 4NAM0 cancer in her lower mandible. My mother is 90 years old - mentally strong but physically quite frail, exhausted by this last week of tests.

The options that have been offered as a result of her case's review by a local hospital's tumor board are:
1) The "standard" surgery to resect her jaw replacing it with a titanium rod and neck dissection to remove the affected nodes, or
2)a palliative course of radiation therapy - 10 treatments to try to abate the growth of the tumor.

Although there is a chance that the surgery could eliminate the cancer in her mouth/neck, we are concerned that she would not survive the procedure or recovery. And then there is the possibility that the cancer could appear somewhere else, after having gone thru such a difficult procedure.

We are so conflicted - and so overwhelmed with this decision.
In a way the prognosis seems terminal either way. Does the options seem to make since - given the (admittedly limited) description provided. Should we seek a second opinion, even though her case was reviewed the hospitals tumor board?

Has anyone had a similar