Christine,
For sure you are right to go to a top cancer center. Unfortunately that is not likely to happen in this situation. I've also been reading a lot more (on line) about these parotid gland tumors. And Eshwar's suggestion to rule out Merkel cell diagnosis seems right on point as well, given that my friend works in the sun every day.

So far the chronology of events has been a bit slow but still good outcomes are possibly in reach. He did have a clean PET scan of the body in June. My role if any is still unclear, so that's an overriding consideration for me. I'll keep in touch.