Tarceva as first line tx.

Hello - my 80 year old father (Asian) was recently diagnosed with lung cancer via CT scan. He originally presented for hip pain and after an eventual bone scan, metastatic lesions were noted which then led to the CT. His hip has been surgically stabilized (for fear of pathological fracture) as well as being biopsied to confirm the diagnosis of what they suspect will be NSCLC. A 4 cm lesion was found in his lower left lung lobe as well as suspected mets to one of his adrenal glands and of course, his proximal hip (greater trochanter, proximal shaft). Our oncologist would like to skip other standard chemo protocols and jump straight to Tarceva (after performing radiation on his hip) as he feels this will be easier on my dad given his age and cancer stage.  I understand that the Tarceva is efficacious (average) for roughly up to 12 months in helping to limit tumour growth/spread. My questions are: Tarceva is typically used as a second line of therapy - is that d/t cost (i.e. is Tarceva considered 'better' than standard chemo protocols?)? I obviously don't want to see my Dad suffer the complications of hard-core chemo but will undergoing chemo first, make the Tarceva any more efficacious? Once the Tarceva actions begin to dissipate, would/could we then consider other chemo protocols? Our oncologist says we should wait on any radiation to the lung as you 'only get one chance' with radiation there. What would be the typical protocol?   I quite like the oncologist we're presently dealing with but I just wanted to make sure we weren't missing any options. I should note that we discussed the use of Avastin but was told that the drug is extremely expensive and likely would not make a significant difference in survival - do you agree with this? Thank you so much for taking my questions.
LT