Since Paul is Stage II (as best as anyone can tell as of now), adding chemo would probably not lower his odds of recurrence as much as for someone who was Stage IV. At least this is how my medical oncologist explained it to me (I am a Stage II who had chemo with rad but it was optional). However, even for Stage II it could decrease chances of recurrence by 5-8 % according to my MO (using the, apparently commonly used, rule of thumb that it decreases chances for later stages by somewhere between 10 and 16% and as a Stage II you have half the chance of recurrence as those in later stages, so the % decrease should also be halved).

The hearing loss and neuropathy are genuine concerns for cisplatin but be aware that the 1% mortality is probably less than that if you go into treatment young and in reasonably good health otherwise.

I was told by the MO who recommended I have chemo, who was at one of the top CCCs in the country, that it is protocol to give chemo to Stage IIs in Europe but not in the States. He preferred the European model and recommended it, espeically to someone like me who was young and in good health otherwise. I trusted his recommendation and don't have any regrets about having it though there's no question it made the whole treatment much harder.

Nelie