I was given the choice of chemo.......and the hope of shrinking my tumor, stage 4, somewhat and dying comfortably, or opting for radical surgery, my surgeons in Boston felt that if I had chemo before surgery it would weaken my immune system, so, I opted for surgery. Understand this was total removal of larnyx, vocal cords, tongue, floor of mouth and jaw bone and lymph nodes......My personal opinion would be to get a second opinion...my origonal ENT could not perform the micro surgery involved, so he didn`t recommend it...I would get a second opinion.