Angels --

The advantage of a comprehensive cancer center is that you will be seen by a team of specialists -- surgeons, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists (chemo), nutritionists, dentists, etc. -- who will consider your specific situation and work together to develop a treatment plan. Because it can affect several different functions critical to life (eating, breathing, talking, etc.), this type of cancer, more than many others, requires the involvement of specialists in a variety of areas. Your ENT may be a good doctor, but he may also deal with removing tonsils, fixing deviated septums and putting ear tubes in toddlers. To fight this disease most effectively, you want to be seen by doctors who deal with it every day.

It sounds as if you have been seen only by an ear/nose/throat surgeon. Not surprisingly, surgeons like to do surgery, and so that is what he is recommending. But if you spend time reading these boards, you will find that many who post here (and whose cancer was similar to yours) were treated at a comprehensive cancer center with radiation and chemotherapy and did not have any surgery until those treatments were completed -- and then only if necessary. Some, of course, did have surgery first, followed by radiation and chemo -- but that course of treatment came as a result of consensus among doctors representing all those specialties, talking among themselves in a "tumor board" at a comprehensive cancer center.

Several people who post here were treated at Emory University in Atlanta. You can do a search for Emory in the Search box in the upper-right corner and find out who they are, then send then e-mails or private messages to learn the specifics of their treatment.

Getting two or three opinions (or, in David's case, five!) is common, and your doctor should not be resistant to the idea. If he is, it's time to find another doctor. In the meantime, you've found the best place around for information and support. Keep reading and keep posting.

All the best,
Leslie