Thank you very much for your replies and well wishes. We really needed someone to give us some hope for continuing the fight after hearing the doctor say that my mother has a month and a half left.

The tumor in the left cheek has increased in size during chemo, and is causing her a lot of pain. However, the neck dissection and all of the CT scans so far have shown no sign of disease in the lymph nodes or the lungs.

My mother's current doctor never gave us the option of a mandiblectomy, and advised us towards chemotherapy alone. While she was about to start chemo, we got a second opinion from another doctor in the US who said that the mandible should be removed within a month, and that having chemo would make the operation difficult, if not impossible to perform. Just arranging to bring my mother to the US was a process that was realistically taking very much longer than a month. We could find no other surgeon willing to take the case. Therefore, on the advice of my mother's doctor we decided to begin chemo, hoping to stall things while we worked to figure out some better option.

Based on your suggestion, we have made an appointment to find out if radiation seed implants would be available in this case.

I just want to clarify one question we have - can a mandiblectomy still be performed after chemo?

I also want to look into another option that is available. There is this treatment machine called Cytogen. It is originally used for arthritis treatments, however, it is also claimed to be used in focused burning of tumors. Upon my searches, I have found that this is experimental, and has not been approved. If we exhaust all other options, I was wondering if anyone knows anything about Cytogen in cancer treatment?

Once again, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind replies and know that my prayers are with you as well.