However, in the early stages, symptoms are often unclear so they are easy to ignore. The patient feels like there is a foreign object or fish bone stuck in the tongue, which is very uncomfortable but passes quickly. In addition, there is a raised spot on the tongue with a change in color, white mucosa, fibrosis or damage that is a small ulcer. You can even feel the lesion as firm, solid, not as soft as usual. About 50% of patients have lymphadenopathy at baseline. Common lymph nodes are lymph nodes under the chin and under the jaw. The possibility of regional lymph node metastasis ranges from 15-75% depending on the invasiveness of the primary tumor.
When in the full-blown stage, patients are often diagnosed at this stage because they are in pain. When eating and drinking, prolonged pain causes difficulty speaking and swallowing.
In addition, the patient may have a fever due to infection and cannot eat, so the body collapses very quickly. The patient feels increased pain when speaking and chewing and especially when eating spicy food. Heat sometimes spreads to the ears; increased salivation; bleeding in the mouth with unpleasant breath caused by necrotic lesions. Some cases cause tightness of the jaw and tongue, making it difficult for the patient to speak and swallow At this stage, ulcers appear on the tongue above the pseudomembranous ulcer, which easily bleeds and spreads rapidly, causing the tongue to be unable to move.
There are many treatment methods. value tongue cancer Doctors often prescribe methods appropriate to the stage of the disease.
Surgery:
< p>This is a good treatment method. However, many people
In the early stages, radical treatment can be performed with surgery. In later stages, it is necessary to combine surgical treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy to prolong survival and improve the quality of life for patients. In some late-stage cases, when there is heavy bleeding at the tumor, surgery to ligation of the external carotid artery is required to stop the bleeding.
Radiation therapy:
< p>Radiation alone can be given in cases of late-stage tongue cancer; surgery is no longer indicated or radical radiotherapy in early-stage cases. Radiation therapy can also be used after surgery to kill remaining cancer cells. In addition, local radiotherapy (brachytherapy) can be performed by using a radioactive source placed or inserted into the cancerous lesion on the tongue to destroy the lesion.
Radiation therapy plays a role in treatment. radical or complementary in the treatment of tongue cancer, however it also causes some side effects such as dry mouth, stomatitis, dark skin, burning skin, ulcers, tight jaw.
Chemical:
Can be used systemic or lingual artery route, single chemotherapy or multi-chemotherapy combination. Studies show that the use of multiple chemotherapy results in a better response than single chemotherapy.
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is chemotherapy before surgery or radiotherapy aimed at shrinking lesions. Make surgery and radiotherapy more convenient. Pre-adjuvant chemotherapy brings high local response rates (75-85%), improving drug tolerance for patients, reducing drug resistance rates and preventing distant metastases from appearing early. Preoperative chemotherapy is often applied to late-stage head, face and neck cancer.
Doctors recommend that to prevent tongue cancer, people should be examined as soon as they see any unusual signs to diagnose. diagnose and detect diseases and combine many treatment methods to improve effectiveness.
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