Yes, that can be an option, patience will be your friend Keith. Worth a try. Hopefully the browning part has not gone way too deep inside.
Or on a long shot, try to experiment and graft with a healthy cacti rootstock, but do a good clean slice of that damaged brown part first. Either way, time and patience will be required. It is good it is Spring already, things are on the way to more warm up mode and growing time for cacti. I have not done grafting personally, but it seems like a good candidate, rather than totally lose the plant altogether.
