Cancer of the Tongue is One of Oral Cancer Types
Cancer of the Tongue is One of Oral Cancer Types
Since tongue is the part of mouth, cancer of the tongue is one of oral cancer types. However, not all cancers occur at tongue are considered oral cancer. Only two third parts from the front of tongue is classified as oral cancer. Cancers, which located in the back of the tongue is considered head and neck cancer type. If we talk about tongue cancer, it should be referring to cancer that occurs in the front part of the tongue. From many cases, it usually develops in the thin cells that cover tongue surface called squamous cells.
Cancer of the Tongue – Symptoms and Treatments
Understanding symptom of tongue cancer could help early detection and the cure. The symptoms are mostly not specific in the early stage such as sore in the mouth, sore throat, and red patch in the tongue that we may confuse it with a cold or mouth ulcer. As cancer of the tongue grows, more symptoms will occur. The symptoms are including persistent pain in the tongue, jaw, and other part of the mouth, lump inside the mouth, difficulty of chewing, difficulty of swallowing, and difficulty of moving the tongue and jaw.
Since most symptoms are not specific, you should not too frighten but still need to observant. If you experience the symptoms, it is better to visit doctor to consult and find what happen. Doctor will examine you and recommend several test if he suspects cancer. The most common test to diagnose cancer of the tongue is biopsy. If it confirms you have cancer and doctor figure out the stage and complexities of the cancer, he will recommend treatment to fight the cancer.
Similar with other cancer types, treatment for tongue cancer is tailor made by individual approach. The options are including surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and targeted drug therapy. Commonly, patient should have combination of several treatments to fight the cancer. Radiation and chemotherapy are the common initial treatment to shrink the cancer before the doctor performs surgery to remove the entire tumor or uses targeted drug therapy to the cancerous cells. Due to the treatment plan, it will take times to treat cancer of the tongue.