Your tongue extends from the middle of your neck to the roof of your mouth.
The tongue is one of the most common sites forhead and neck cancer.
As with most cancers, early diagnosis and treatment of tongue cancer lead to better outcomes.
In fact,Moffitt Cancer Centersays that squamous cell carcinoma accounts for 90 percent of all tongue cancers.
Other types, such as lymphoma and sarcoma, can develop on the tongue but are extremely rare.
When the cancer affects the throat, the first sign is frequently swollen lymph nodes.
How Is Tongue Cancer Diagnosed?
To diagnose tongue cancer, doctors might first ask about your symptoms and medical history.
Then they might perform a physical examination of the tongue.
Dentists often discover tongue cancers during routine exams.
Distinguishing the stage can help doctors recommend effective treatments and provide an accurate prognosis.
Surgery
Surgery is the most common treatment for tongue cancer.
Often, doctors will recommend radiation after surgery to destroy any remaining cancer cells.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy involves delivering powerful drugs to kill cancer cells in the body.
Immunotherapies might be used to treat tongue cancer if the disease is advanced or other therapies have failed.
Your healthcare provider can help you determine if youre a good candidate for participating in a clinical trial.
Complications of Tongue Cancer
Complications of tongue cancer commonly occur as a result of the treatments received.
About 18,040 new diagnoses of tongue cancer are made each year in the United States.
Roughly 2,940 people will die from the disease.
The lifetime risk of developing tongue cancer for adults is around 0.4 percent.
However, age-adjusted rates for new tongue cancer cases have been increasing in recent years.
Researchersbelieve that this upward trend could be partially due to more people contracting the HPV virus.
Her goal is to compose helpful articles that readers can easily understand and use to improve their well-being.
She is passionate about healthy living and delivering important medical information through her writing.
Prior to her freelance career, Marks was a supervising producer of medical programming for Ivanhoe Broadcast News.
She is a Telly award winner and Freddie award finalist.
Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, and More
What Is Head and Neck Cancer?
Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
HPV-Related Oral Cancers Are on the Rise
