Jac,
Sounds like they are throwing everything possible at him to get rid of all the cancer.
He sure will be ill after such drasic surgery, and the chemo and rad might not be easy, but if you read a lot of posts on this site, you will find many people who have had positive outcomes from oral cancer, even at Stage 4.
It certainly sounds as though they've been so aggressive with treatment because they think it will improve his prognosis.
From what I've read, positive margins sounds really good!My carcinoma in jaw id 'undifferentiated'--which means the margins are NOT positive or 'clean', therefore my surgery was cancelled--no point!

Pre-biopsy, my jaw was VERY swollen and painful, and I had huge difficulty opening my mouth and eating. It took a while to all 'settle down', but there was a huge improvement in jaw mobility and lessening of pain afterwards and I've put back on the 7Lbs I'd lost!

Your 'From' says GB--Great Britain?? If so, ring the MacMillan nurses--they are a huge source of information and counselling!

I'm sorry I can't answer your questions directly, but know we're all here to help if we can!

Brenda

I'm sure people with similar/same types of cancer will soon be on here to answer you.

I DO understand your fear though, for me it was better 'knowing', but the end result was better than my initial fears--In March, I didn't think I'd still be here now!