After my husband's neck dissection he did not have any further chemo. His treatment prior to the neck dissection was 7 weeks of radiation with the first and fourth week in the hospital with a 96 hour drip of chemo (I think Cisplatin and Taxol). I believe it was explained to us that the chemo gives the radiation a boost and kills any microscopic cancer cells that may have left the main site. The lymph nodes are supposed to catch the bad cells and in a lot of oral cancer patients they do not find out they have oral cancer until they have a lump on the side of their neck. We didn't ask and they didn't explain why they were in the perinodal tissue. The next visit I'll try and remember to ask.
The two other person in my husband's group also had neck dissections a couple months after their treatment and one did not find anything and the other one (who had lumps on both sides of his neck) found one side clean and the other side still had cells which they removed. Both are doing well. Neither of them had any further chemo.

During my husband neck dissection the doctor stretched the inside of my husband's throat because he had said right after treatment that his throat seemed tight. He made it through threatment with a feeding tube or peg but just drinking Mighty Shake Plus and probably the scare tissue his throat may have closed up a little. Eating is a chore because of the salvia issue but he can eat.

Teresa