Bob,
I hope that you are referring to Memorial Sloan Kettering Comprehensive Cancer Center (there are many cancer centers on the NCI list in New York) and not that other ...Treatment Center of ... outfit that has received regulatory sanctions and is listed on Quackwatch. See: http://www.quackwatch.org/00AboutQuackwatch/altseek.html

Head & neck surgeons will almost recommend surgery - get a second opinion from a radiation oncologist as well. At this point you really need a coordinated multidisciplinary team.

IMHO if it were me, and I had tongue cancer (any kind of oral cancer for that matter), I would waste no time in finding one of the 60 or so (comprensive) cancer centers in the US and getting my Dx and Tx there. I had an advanced tonsil cancer and I went to a CCC and I truly believe it saved my life. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) both have a list - below.

These are the top NCCN ones: http://www.nccn.org/members/network.asp
This is the NCI list by state:
http://www3.cancer.gov/cancercenters/centerslist.html

Ask your doctor where HE would go or an immediate family member if they had cancer.