I am new to this forum but I wish I had found this when I was beginning my trip through cancer. My cancer journey was not through Mayo Clinic. Everyone is different and I hate to give advice when it may result in a bad outcome but I can only tell you about my experience. I was extremely healthy, never over weight, ate healthy all my life, ran most mornings, ran 5ks on the weekends, etc. I was diagnosed with acinic cell carcinoma in my parotid gland behind my right ear in 2014 when I was 62. It's very rare and I had surgery a week after my diagnosis. They removed the parotid gland, the glands and nodes in my neck, cut the right side of my face off and removed everything inside except the bone, and part of my ear canal. A few weeks later I began intensive radiation to the right side of my head every day for 7 weeks. I had no problems and went back to work 2 weeks after surgery and worked all through my radiation. A month later the side effects of trying to expel all that radiation from my body began. I was left with half of my face paralyzed, it affected my hearing and eyesight and I had rashes, blisters, nausea, extreme fatigue, thyroid problems and part of my memory was damaged. I decided long ago if I am ever faced with cancer again I may do the surgery, but the radiation is just too hard on my body. I don't think the damage done is worth the outcome. May God bless you as you make this decision and please know there are millions of positive outcomes.