Hello,
My husband had spread of his base of tongue cancer to the epiglottis. He had had prior radiation so went straight to surgery which was a laryngectomy.
Your husband will need to work very closely with a Speech Therapist to enable him to swallow safely. With no aspiration into the lungs. The epiglottis is what closes during swallow to stop food and liquids entering the lungs. I cant stress enough how important this will be for your husband. I'm presuming he has a PEG tube currently?
I wish you guys the best and trust the radiation will do the job.
Tammy

Caregiver/advocate to Husband Kris age 59@ diagnosis
DX Dec '10 SCC BOT T4aN2bM0 HPV+ve.Cisplatin x3 35 IMRT.
PET 6/11 clear.
R) level 2-4 neck dissection 8/1/11 to remove residual node - necrotic with NED
Feb '12 Ca back.. 3/8/12 total glossectomy/laryngectomy/bilat neck dissection/partial pharyngectomy etc. clear margins. All nodes negative for disease. PEG in.
March 2017 - 5 years disease free. Woohoo!