Tongue Cancer

Tongue Cancer is the most common cancer in oral cavity. It is gathering of malignant cancer cells forming a Malignant tumor on the surface skin of tongue known as Squamous Cells Carcinomas. Tongue cancer is a type of oral cancer which generally is located on the areas of the tongue that are visible easily in our mouth such as the lateral borders, the middle sections or the taste buds etc, chances of tongue cancer are found more in adult male over younger males and females the main risk factor behind tongue cancer is tobacco products and alcohol. Generally the areas that are affected by tongue cancer are papillae, taste buds, base of the tongue, and the outer lateral borders of the tongue.

Basically the tongue cancer can be divided into two parts-

• Oral Tongue cancer- malignancy on the 2/3rd part (posterior) of tongue that can come out of our mouth.
• Base Tongue cancer- cancer on the remaining part of tongue also known as Orpharyngeal cancer

Tongue cancer usually starts with a sore or ulcer of grayish-pink to dark red in color that often bleeds easily (benign tumor) and proceeds to growth in size, firmness and it becomes harder as time passes. The central portion of ulcer is comparatively softer and bleeds often resulting in difficulty in chewing, swallowing, certain problems of speech, numbness etc are primary symptoms of tongue cancer whereas the symptoms on the later stage of tongue cancer are lump in the rear part of tongue, unusually oversized neck lymph glands, often feeling like presence of mass in throat, bad breath etc. These all above are the symptoms that a cancer patient has to face during the various stages of tongue cancer. The causes that are leads to tongue cancer are listed below though the perfect causes of tongue cancer are still unknown as like for the most Head and Neck cancers-

• Having weaker immune system
• Poor and uncontrolled diet
• Exposure to radioactive and harmful chemicals
• Smoking cigarettes, pipes and cigars or chewing of other tobacco products
• Liquor or other alcoholic products especially along with tobacco
• Sexually transmitted virus Human Papilloma virus (HPV)

It is generally assumed that cancer is always fatal and incurable but if some precautions are taken in early stages it's neither fatal nor it's incurable only it requires proper care and some basic to avoid tongue cancer and some precautions that could be kept to avoid tongue cancer are-

• Limiting the use of tobacco products and if possible quitting these habits
• Avoiding the use of alcohol and alcoholic products such as mouth wash, mouth spray etc
• Consumption of balance diet
• As it's mostly an adult's disease so proper check ups should be conducted after age of 40
• Minute ulcers and sores that don't heals with time should be given proper medical attention

The treatment of tongue cancer depends upon the size and location of the malignant tumor when it is diagnosed. The chances of permanent cure also depend on the time the tumor is diagnosed because tumor in earlier stages can be successfully removed by minor surgeries. Whereas the critical and mature cancers are removed using following treatments-

• Surgeries- it's the mostly and widely used mode of treatment in which the entire cancer is removed using laser treatment or manually by operating it.
• Radiation therapy- Its generally done after surgery to suppress the remaining cancer cells and is a process in which radio isotopes or high energy X ray are beamed on the cells resulting in proper cleaning of the affected area

• Chemotherapy- Its done when the cancer can't be localized or if have spread to the other body parts it is done either orally or through veins
• Reconstructive surgery- it is also required in most tongue cancer cases as in most of the cases cancer surgery affects the working of tongue and various rehabilitations

measure are made to help the patient recover the side effects of the treatment . Tongue cancer is a critical disease but it has cures if diagnose and treated on time and because of advanced treatment the cases of tongue cancer are being easily cured nowadays.