Brett --

At Hopkins there is a Tarceva trial which is showing a lot of promise -- one fellow had very large "untreatable" mouth/ throat/palate cancer (this dx at another institution) -- and last time we spoke to him his tumors were shrunk almost 75% and he was only 1/2 way through the trial! These new EGFR drugs do not act on the cancer in the same way as conventional chemo (carbo, taxol, etc.) and are a good option for you. The Hopkins trial involves a 15-day induction with the Tarceva (at which point our friend's tumor had shrunk more than 25%) and then Tarceva and cisplatin, plus radiation (so not same as your trial). I think the Tarceva is continued for some time afterwards as well.

Another possible option might be brachytherapy -- there is a woman at Hopkins who had that in NYC -- Beth Israel? -- a few years ago for a tongue cancer and also had a recurrence and is being treated at Hopkins with chemoradiation (tomo-therapy). The precision of the tomo is apparently good enough to allow radiation of the new tumor without delivering much to te area treated previously by brachytherapy. I know that the seeds are used for tongue tumors but not much more than that. It may be worth pursuing this, as her case is sort of the opposite of yours...

Hopefully the Tarceva will do as well for you as for our friend in Baltimore!

Best wishes,
Gail