What are the hazards caused by tongue cancer

What are the hazards caused by tongue cancer? Any disease will cause harm to the body, let alone cancer that threatens human life. Tongue cancer may be rare in our lives, but it is one of the more common oral cancers in clinical practice, which brings serious harm to patients. So, what are the hazards caused by tongue cancer?

Tongue cancer usually occurs at the tip of the tongue, and male patients are more common than female patients. Squamous cell carcinoma is the main type, and adenocarcinoma is relatively rare. It is often ulcerative or invasive, grows fast, is painful, and has strong invasiveness. It may cause limited tongue movement, difficulty eating and swallowing, and often has clinical manifestations such as cervical lymph node metastasis in the early stage. Due to the great impact of tongue cancer, it has received widespread attention, and its harm cannot be ignored.

1. Tongue cancer is often complicated by infection, and in the late stage it is often accompanied by tissue necrosis, hemorrhage, and aspiration pneumonia.

2. Metastasis to the lingual and cervical lymph nodes occurs early and is often limited to the pharyngeal and deep cervical lymph nodes. Root ulcers may also occasionally metastasize to the posterior styloid process and retropharyngeal lymph nodes. A small number of patients may have hematogenous metastasis and often metastasize to the lungs.

3. In the early stage of tongue cancer, there are often nodules or swellings at the edge of the tongue. Later, as the disease progresses, ulceration occurs in the center of the lump and spreads to the parenchyma and para-epithelial tissue. The ulcer may appear cauliflower-like, with raised edges and an obvious hard infiltrated mass at the base.

In some cases, the early symptoms of tongue cancer include difficulty in swallowing, aggravated pain when talking and eating, and may spread to the same side of the ear. In the later stage, the tumor infiltrates into the stratum corneum and spreads to the oral cavity, which may restrict body movement and even cause constipation, resulting in drooling, difficulty in eating, and cause systemic nutritional disorders.

When the tumor affects the deep muscles and lingual nerve, pain and tongue movement disorders may occur, affecting speech and swallowing functions. Advanced tongue cancer can invade the floor of the mouth, mandible, palatoglossal arch, and tonsils. The closer the lesion is to the root of the tongue, the higher the degree of malignancy. Because the tongue is active and has abundant lymphatic vessels and blood circulation, it is easy to metastasize to the lymph nodes at an early stage. Tongue cancer can metastasize to distant sites, most commonly the lungs.