Just so everyone is clear - there are two types of chemo involved in head and neck cancers. One that augments the effects of the radiation given at the time of radiation, and the other a systemic treatment to deal with potential or actual distant mets. In all the conversations people have with their doctors this fact is frequently misunderstood. Be sure you know which type they are considering and why. Ditto reports of success rates and end results. There are many variables; location of tumor, number of nodes, differentiated or not, non-local mets, etc. etc. that make up the treatment protocol decision process. We must all be careful to consider that while each of us has had different types of treatments, or offered different choices, many of these things dictate those options. Also, as Gary mentioned, major comprehensive cancer centers frequently approach this differently that small centers, or those doctors in private practices. Lastly, data from any study of any treatment or pharmaceutical is judged to be efficious by a variety of standards. Too many to list here, but I will just mention the two most obvious, the number of individuals in the study and who conducted it (also add how long ago was it done and is the information still viable). Anyone who has read the so called published studies on shark cartilage for instance, knows that they were conducted by a flim flam entity, with doctors that no one had ever heard of, on extremely small groups of patients, at facilities that no one knew of, or were very small in foreign countries with no regulatory oversight, with subjective results.

Additionally our understanding of all this is changing at the speed of the Internet and resulting global cooperation these days. Much more so than say ten years ago, or even 5 years ago. Multiple centers of credibility, evaluating something in different countries, verify the end result and we then have tangible evidence, that I would bet my chances on. Small studies with few participating institutions, may give us preliminary results that are promising but may not change end results when looked at in larger scale. A group of 100 patients instead of 10, or over 10 years instead of 4. It is always good to do the best research you can, ask questions of your doctors if you believe that they have overlooked a possibility, and then, if satisfied with everything decide on treatments with their expertise as a major contributing factor in the process. But chemo isn' t just chemo............. and their in lies part of the confusion in all this.