With the disease still loco-regional to the mouth and neck, this treatment should be thought of as curative not palliative. Other people here have made it through that same staging and are still around. Unless your doctors are not telling you something... like they have done a PET scan, and they see that it is in his lungs or brain etc. I would be asking them what factors make him a patient they do not believe they can eliminate the cancer from. As others will tell you here, the institution has a great deal to do with outcomes as they have varying degrees of experience and technology at hand. Having him in a CCC makes a difference and we frequently tell people not to let geography dictate treatment facility choice.

Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.