Probably I didn't express that right: it is *based* in the tonsil, but is big - into the palette, oropharynx, tongue and so on, and as the doctors put it 'nibbling into' the bone. They want to remove a section both because the bone is cancerous (not, they say, a separate cancer, but the same SCC) and for access to the tumour. All the surgeons (three) and two oncologists agreed it was necessary... But you've made me think yes, we can check with them how much they intend to take out.
Wernicke Korsakoff is a syndrome of nerve and brain damage resulting from malnutrition, in particular vitamin B deficiency, usually associated with alcoholism, so there can be an overlap with alcohol-related oral cancer, though there is no specific connection. The reason it is so little known is that mostly people who get it die of it; there's no survivors' forum that I can find on the web. My young man seems very unusual in being a pretty-much fully functioning WK survivor, and we're always looking out for another somewhere out there....
Thanks for the tip about fentanyl. I'll enquire about that.

all the best from London -

LouK