MSKCC is one of the finest hospitals in the world for the treatment of all types of cancers, including oral melanoma. While doctors know a lot about the disease, they do not have a cure for it. It has a much higher death rate than SCC's. Melanoma of the external skin is also extremely deadly for the same reasons. While it is painful to loose someone you love to a disease, you can be assured that given the caliber of doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering, and the strict controls which they work under, they did everything there was within their power to effect a cure. With this particular cancer, like so many diseases today, there is very little in the way of solutions to work with. Your perspective that they used him as a lab rat I find particularly cruel and demeaning to those that were trying to save his life. I know that given the numerous procedures that they likely tried in vain to effect a remission, that may have been perceived by you as experimenting, and must be the reason that you have made this statement. But would you have preferred that after the first thing they attempted did not produce the curative results they just stopped trying? Your pain and perhaps even anger over this loss is palpable, and I am sure that you have the sympathies of everyone here. But for some cancers there just is very little that can be done, even when they are caught early. Melanoma is one of them. We all are frustrated and hurt deeply when we lose someone we love, even after seeing them endure procedure after procedure and fight like hell for their lives. What I try to remember in those times is the amazing quality of their example of courage and strength that they have instilled in me and others by not going quietly into the night.....