Dev,

That's pretty much the same diagnosis I had 8 years ago for tonsil cancer; T1N2bM0. It sounds like the standard of care for oropharyngeal cancer with Chemoradiation, which outcome is on par with surgery, and was suggested for me too. Surgery has made a comeback recently for initial treatment with Robotic or Transoral Micro Laser surgery, otherwise, regular surgery can be pretty invasive. There are many other reasons why surgery may not be preferred.

Cisplatin is often the preferred chemo, if there is no impairment as far as the kidneys, hearing go. If so, they may use another chemo like Carboplatin, that is another platinum based chemo, Erbitux or others.

There's often a question wether to do the three large bag doses, as you mentioned, or weekly smaller doses. Both pretty much have the same outcome, but the three large bag slightly outperforms the weekly doses.

The biggest positive prognostic factor we have for oropharyngeal cancer is if it’s HPV related, which has better outcome, and responds well to radiation treatment.

There are lots of things to go over, if one wants to know, and our Administrator, Christine, and others, may add their words of welcome.