Kate, there are definitely people who pop in now and then who have early (stage 1 or 2) cancers and do surgery but not radiation and their cancers do not come back. I think the reason you don't see them as much here is they have less major issues after treatment, and they also are less able to support the many people who come here as they are going through radiation or radiation and chemo because they haven't gone through that themselves.

If your mother doesn't have radiation, she definitely should have enough surgery to get good margins around the cancer (which is why, it sounds like, they want to do more surgery) and, if she is not being treated at a CCC, I recommend she get a second opeinion from one about the need for radiation. But it does sound to me that with her health problems, and the fact that her tumor is Stage I, maybe radiation is too aggressive for her. I'm not a doctor though just someone who's been through it all!

Nelie