There is a lot I don't know about your/her situation, and that may negate the value of what I say here. For instance I do not know what kind of team of doctors have been treating her and recommending to you what you should do. Knowing that they were not some small town doctors with limited resources or experience would make me feel better. (PLEASE if you are a small town doctor, do not email me regarding this comment; it is only reasonable to assume that major cancer center doctors have a greater exposure to things and greater resources at their disposal.) Next, regarding clinical trials. In my own opinion, I believe that they are a path of last resort. You don't even know at this stage if conventional chemotherapy will work or not. Opting out of a known technology, with known results, for an unproven technology or treatment doesn't make sense to me. Has someone lead you to believe that chemotherapy will not work for her? If so, what was their reason for believing that? I would want to see that she was in a major cancer center and have those doctors decide which chemo agent is the most appropriate given the tumors location and staging. I believe that getting her into a facility like Hopkins, MD Anderson, Mayo, or Kettering, if it is within your financial abilities to do so, outweighs any benefits of being treated in the comfort of a home environment that you/she is familiar with.

Given what little I know about the details, I am with the surgeon on this one. Starting a therapy now like chemo seems the prudent thing to do. It will not take long to determine if it is having an effect or not. If not, you can fall back to the next level of treatments, clinical trials. In the meantime I would want to be sure that you are getting professional opinions from more than one doctor, and hopefully from several of different disciplines. This is all so much easier when they are together at Hopkins or where ever. Your posts indicate that you do not have a belief that she will beat this, and I would like to know what has been said to you that makes you feel this way. It may provide some insight to me. As always, if there is something within my small realm of influence that I can do to help you, please do not hesitate to ask.

Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.