The "traditional" standard approach to cancer treatments is a mixture of the old standards of surgery mixed with newer methods. Tumor "debulking" (surgery) as a first step and then radiation to mop up. Chemo is given more to enhance the effects of radiation and offers a small statistical improvement. I know of no chemo that, by itself, offers a cure for SCC.

The idea that radiation alone might offer nearly the same statistical survival rates is fairly new relative to the surgical solutions which have a 100+ years of track record. In addition any treatment plan might be ever so slightly biased by the particular specialty you were consulting with. In otherwords, surgeons tend to know surgery, and radiation oncologists tend to know radiation. This is why the common advice here is to seek a multi-disciplinary medical center for treatment advice. These facilities generally offer the best treatment outcomes.

Another thing to consider is that as cancer staging moves from early stage I to stage IV, the treatment options required to give best long term outcomes change. The points at which the treatment option changes from surgery only to surgery plus radiation, and radiation plus chemo are not sharply defined points. In addition, the staging process relies heavily upon surgery to remove the lymph nodes for pathology testing. This creates a bit of a problem: if you don't do a radical neck dissection then you don't really know the stage, but if you don't know the stage was advanced why do the radical neck dissection? I believe the experience level of your doctors makes the difference here.