Please never be afraid of offending me, I am outspoken, and as a result I have had to develop a thick skin. What is import are not my feelings about things, but your health. All I wish to leave you with is a bit of perspective and this will partially answer digtexas too. Base of tongue cancers move rather quickly unlike tonsilar cancers which move slower. Why this is, no one knows, and it doesn't apply to every cancer in every person. Genetic predisposition may make a normally slow moving cancer run like a prairie wildfire. The point of perspective that I wish to leave Desiree with is this. I hear from many people, that they wish to be treated locally, by a doctor they have heard good things about in their town, they list the geographic concerns, they list the impact on their families, and they even list of all things, convenience. I am always in awe of their perspective. They have a disease that kills more than it spares. Even in the most competent hands and facility this disease wins all too often. And they are thinking about something other than surviving it. Surviving it, since they can not cure themselves, entails picking the best possible team and institution to be treated in, and trusting them to bring you out the other side of this. Perhaps you can attend a tumor board at MSK in NY and receive MSK protocols in your neck of the woods afterwards. That may be an option. But you won