Hello. I'm very new to this list, and in fact have not yet had a moment to sit down and introduce myself to you all, but I do feel compelled to reply to this particular post. My husband Jim was diagnosed in November (day before Thanksgiving) with squamous cell carcinoma found in a neck mass that was removed six weeks after a needle biopsy came back "suspicious cells". It took several weeks for the ENT to determine the primary tumor, and there was so much confusion we couldn't make sense of much of it...an MRI showed an extremely large mass in my husbands throat that the doc could not see--he still calls it the "phantom MRI". Well, we were then sent to Stanford's ENT Tumor Board for a 2nd opinion and via that process it was determined that Jim had a tumor at the base of his tongue, and it was likely stage III or IV. They offered us a chance to participate in a trial there of 2 rounds of chemo (Taxol/5fu) followed by 7weeks radiation with concurrent chemo, then two more rounds of chemo. We declined because, frankly we didn't find the Tumor Board doc very "warm and fuzzy" and we could not envision the commute over a very windey highway 17. We then found a chemo doc near home who we had an immediate rapport with and who offered a therapy very similar to the Stanford trial, but using Taxotere rather than Taxol...so that is what we are doing. Jim has completed 4 28-day cycles of chemo and 3 weeks of radiation therapy to date...after the first two rounds of chemo, a CAT scan found no visible sign of the original tumor. Wednesday night Jim had surgery to insert a gastirc feeding tube as he was having much difficulty swallowing anything, including fluids. So, to make a very long story short, our treatment plan is very similar to the one being recommended to you, and yes, the idea was to shrink his tumor to a size that could be surgically removed without losing the function of the tongue...it seems to have worked beautifully in that respect. I can certainly relate to your wanting to get the tumor out ASAP, we felt so frustrated when we were waiting to start treatment, any treatment. I wish you the best.