Michael,

Chemo is most always used concurrently with the radiation as the chemo is meant primarily to weaken the fast growing cancer cells making them more susceptible to being destroyed by the radiation.

BTW if you have bilateral nodal involvement you should have been staged a N2c.

Were/are you a tobacco user? Have you been tested for HPV?

Yes radiation is not fun and some side effects are life long but the alternative may be permanent. I had the concurrent chemo/rad and my taste and saliva are easily over 90% of what they used to be. My thyroid is fried but a single pill a day corrects that and my hearing is damaged due to Cisplatin and perhaps my delivery method but not so much that I need hearing aids.

Maybe, just MAYBE, if you are HPV+ then MAYBE I would consider chemo alone. Nope, on second thought, I wouldn't risk it even if I was HPV+ because once it spreads beyond the nodes your survival chances go way way down. I would think that before they would do away with the rad and just agree to chemo, they would probably insist on a bilateral neck dissection and I would take the rad over the ND's any day. JM2C's