I am not sure if the treatment plan is correlated with whether a patient is a smoker or not because in my case, I have never smoked or drunk in my life, but I was given intensive, concurrent chemoradiation to treat my stage 4 tonsil cancer (T2N3M0)with 4 rounds of cisplatin and 48 treatments of radiation (not IMRT). My oncologist didn't tell me if it was the most aggressive treatment but he just said that it was something I could tolerate. No surgery was necessary after treatment and I am doing fine today.

Karen

Karen stage 4B (T3N3M0)tonsil cancer diagnosed in 9/2001.Concurrent chemo-radiation treatment ( XRT x 48 /Cisplatin x 4) ended in 12/01. Have been in remission ever since.