Seth --

Ask your doctor about carboplatin -- our Hopkins medical oncologist (he knows who she is as we told him when we saw him for 2nd opinion) said it appears to be about as effective as cisplatin for Barry's cancer (and he is stage IV SCC). This takes only one hour to administer and so far has caused Barry 0 issues -- also three others patients are getting it here and also, no problems. It can be given weekly or in three doses two weeks apart.

Because there is less long-term data on the newer drug (carbo) many doc's don't use it -- Barry was told this and said he would take a small risk to avoid the severe side effects, one of which was hearing loss as he already has high-end loss due to infections as a kid.

The chemo is used as a radiosensitizer for the therapy -- it is not the main player in the treatment although combination chemoradiation has been shown to have a better control and long-term survival rate than radiation alone. This difference is significant but not immense, according to the papers I have read. IMHO it doesn't do much good to beat someone's physical well-being to a pulp (including their immune system) to achieve a few percenage points more "statistical" improvement. Ask for some numbers...

Anyway, good luck and tell Michael we are rooting for him!

Gail and Barry