As far as I can tell you... people with a stage 1 DX can die and a stage 4 can survive. It's all about the patient. Truthfully, I think he should fight! He's 42, and hopefully healthy otherwise. Unless they can show distant mets, to the lungs, or elsewhere... hip brain etc... he's not a gonner! Usually they operate on this type of cancer, and give him an orburator (a prosthesis) - and possibly depending on his biopsy and scan results they may offer him chemoradiation. If he has lymph node involvement, or jaw, the surgery may be more extensive, but I would not give up at this point. take care and good luck!