Learning About Tongue Cancer
- “Top Chef” alum and restaurateur Shirley Chung, who beat stage 4 tongue cancer with radiation and chemo, is looking back on the three options she was given when she was confronted with her diagnosis and the empowering words she was told before confronting the disease.
- Tongue cancer doesn’t always show signs, but symptoms can include: a lump on the side of the tongue that touches the teeth, pain, a sense of fullness in the throat, difficulty swallowing, the feeling of a lump in the neck or throat, voice changes and ear pain.
- Tongue cancer is more commonly found in people older than 40. In addition, tongue cancer is twice as common in men, and smokers are five times more likely to develop tongue cancer than nonsmokers.
- It’s much more common to know someone who has a head or neck cancer, like tongue cancer, nowadays than it was several decades ago. And that’s because of its strong connection to HPV, which is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States.
- The HPV vaccine is proving to be a powerful cancer‑prevention tool, protecting against the high‑risk virus strains responsible for multiple cancers — including cervical, anal, vaginal, vulvar, penile, and certain head and neck cancers — and offering broad protection when given before sexual activity begins
Sharing how she was given three treatment options at the time of her stage four diagnosis, Chung—who was a finalist in “Top Chef: New Orleans” and “Top Chef: Charleston”—tells American Cancer Society she decided on a path less travelled by cancer patients.
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Chung continued, “It just happened, I know that chef … Chef Grant Achatz.”
Her “solution” was to reach out to the chef, looking for advice. Luckily enough, she recounted him replying to her text within five minutes.
Chung recalled the chef saying, “Shirley, you just need to attack this as one of the hardest days in the kitchen. Write out your prep list, and then attack your to-do list, and take it one day at a time.
“By the time you finish all your tasks, you will come out at the end.”
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In an earlier Instagram post, Chung shared milestone moments from her health journey—featuring her shaved head, standing in front of a victory bell, and her hair growth.
She captioned the post, shared on February 4, “I was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer in June of 2024. I chose non traditional treatment of Radiation + Chemo instead of 100% surgical removal of my tongue. I closed my beloved restaurant @mschicafe in Los Angeles and moved to Chicago for my treatment.
“Now I am 15 months in remission, just successfully opened 2 new restaurants in Dallas, @nightroosterdallas and @thesaintdallas.”
Chung continued, “Today is World’s Cancer Day, I am working with @americancancersociety and @tasteofhopetwincities filming promo videos in my new restaurants.
“Cancer research saved my life, I am paying it forward by advocating for ACS for the rest of my life.”
Expert Resources On Coping With a Diagnosis
It’s incredibly admirable how Chung has since beat cancer and returned back to work in October 2025, after battling tongue cancer for 18 months.
Shirley Chung’s Tongue Cancer Diagnosis
Chung, who made the difficult decision to close her L.A. restaurant called Ms. Chi Cafe while she focused on her recovery, initially revealed her diagnosis in July 2024.
“I have some personal news to share with you. Since last year December, I had a series of dental issues, I bit my tongue severely; I fractured my tooth and had to extract it and get an implant… we thought it was because I am a heavy teeth grinder,” she explained on Instagram.
“And I was too busy to see a EMT specialist. The end of May, ulcers erupted in my mouth and my oral surgeon discovered a hidden tumor under my tongue. A few days later, I was diagnosed, stage 4 tongue cancer, as cancer cells also spread into my lymph nodes.”
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Following the news of her diagnosis, all Chung recounting hearing was “option 1, surgery, 100% removal of your tongue.”
Thankfully, Chung’s determination to find another treatment option led her doctor to tell her and her husband about a special case that took place at the University of Chicago. It was there they were told about how another person battling tongue cancer was cured through chemotherapy and radiation, something she described as a “unicorn case.”
“Higher survival rate, or keep my tongue? I chose to keep my tongue, I am a fighter, I am a chef, I can be that unicorn too,” Chung said at the time.
By December 2024, Chung shared a celebratory Instagram post, revealing that she hit a milestone in her cancer treatment: 10 weeks of radiation and chemo treatments.
She went through some challenging side effects, that made it difficult to sleep, eat, and even drink water.
Chung later revealed she has since been able to drink smoothies again, as well as eat soups, ice cream and egg custard.
After noting her taste buds are slowing returning to normal, she added, “I can taste 50% of sweet and savory and all the warm spices.”
She also recounted having an emergency surgery to replace her “G tube,” otherwise known as a gastrostomy tube, which is surgically placed in one’s body through the abdomen to the stomach to bring in nutrition, fluids, and medicine.
The latest procedure. she underwent was to have her “G-tube” removed, which she has celebrated as just another step in her healing process.
A G-tube is a “gastrostomy feeding tube insertion” which is put in place through something called an endoscopy, MedlinePlus reports.
The procedure is performed for a variety of reasons and some people only have the G-tube in for a short period of time, though they can also be left in permanently.
According to research published in JAMA Otolaryngology Head Neck Surgery, within the last 25 years, head and neck cancer cases have been declining except for “oropharyngeal cancer squamous cell carcinoma [OPSCC] (a common type of throat cancer) and oral tongue cancer.” The researchers added that the reason tongue cancer and throat cancer cases have risen stems from the human papillomavirus (HPV). (It’s unclear what led to Chung’s diagnosis.)
Chung ultimately emerged on the other side of treatment where she was able to proudly ring the cancer bell with a smile.
“I completed 20 weeks of chemo, 50 rounds of radiation, and still have my whole tongue,” she shared in another social media post.
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Tongue Cancer: A Type of Head & Neck Cancer
According to Cedars-Sinai, several types of cancer develop in the tongue, with the most common being squamous cell carcinoma.
The two types of tongue cancer are:
- Cancer of the oral tongue, which consists of the front two-thirds of the tongue that you can stick out
- Cancer of the base of the tongue, the area which is the back one-third of the tongue that extends down the throat
Although some people may be diagnosed with tongue cancer and have no risk factors, Cedars-Sinai says this type of cancer is most commonly found in adults 40 years old and up. Men are also twice as likely to be diagnosed with tongue cancer.
Other risk factors include:
- Smoking [smokers are 5x more likely to develop tongue cancer than nonsmokers]
- Drinking alcohol
- Human papillomavirus (HPV)
African-American men also have a greater risk than caucasians.
Tongue cancer may be hard to spot in its early stages, however it’s important to be aware of the symptoms, as catching the disease earlier will lead to an easier treatment path.
Symptoms might include:
- An unusual lump on the side of the tongue
- An ulcer-like lump, of a grayish-pink to red color
- A lump that bleeds easily when touched
- Trouble swallowing
- Voice changes
- Pain in the ear
- Pain in the throat
- Feeling of fullness in the throat
HPV and Cancer Risk: The Basics
Throat cancer is usually diagnosed through X-rays, CT scans, and PET scans. A diagnosis also often requires a biopsy.
For tongue cancer treatment, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are usually done.
It’s much more common to know someone who has a head or neck cancer, like tongue cancer, now-a-days than it was several decades ago. And that’s because of its strong connection to the human papillomavirus, also known as HPV, which is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States.
“From the 1980s to the 2010s, the rate of HPV-related head and neck cancers has gone up by 300 percent,” Dr. Ted Teknos, a head and neck cancer specialist at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland, Ohio, told SurvivorNet during a previous interview.
The vast majority of people in the United States — both men and women — will eventually get infected with HPV, according to Dr. Allen Ho, a head and neck surgeon at Cedars-Sinai.
“The important thing to know about HPV is that there are many different strains, and only a couple of them tend to be more cancer-inducing,” he told SurvivorNet.
“Probably less than 1% of the population who get infected happen to have the cancer-causing virus that somehow their immune system fails to clear, and over 15 to 20 years it develops from a viral infection into a tumor, and a cancer.”
It’s unclear whether HPV alone is enough to trigger the changes in your cells that lead to head and neck cancers, or whether this happens in combination with other risk factors like smoking.
Protecting Against HPV
Nearly 80 million Americans have HPV today, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It impacts men and women and won’t cause problems for most people.
However, in a small percentage of cases, it can lead to cancer.
The HPV vaccine is recommended to protect against HPV and, therefore, HPV-related cancers.
Gardasil 9 is an HPV vaccine that offers protection against “nine HPV types: the two low-risk HPV types that cause most genital warts, plus seven high-risk HPV types that cause most HPV-related cancer,” according to the National Cancer Institute.
The vaccine creates an immune response to HPV 16, the primary cause of 92% of head and neck cancers. Once children are vaccinated, they cannot be infected with that strain. For parents, the HPV vaccine enables them to protect their children from developing cancer in the future.
“The key with the vaccine is that you receive it before you have sexual encounters,” Dr. Jessica Geiger, a medical oncologist at Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center, previously told SurvivorNet. “So that’s why these vaccines are approved for young children, ages 9, 10, 11 years old, up to age 26.”
The HPV vaccine is recommended for all male and female preteens 11 to 12 years old in two doses given between six and 12 months, according to the CDC. The series of shots can also start as young as 9.
The CDC also notes that teens and young adults through age 26 who didn’t start or finish the HPV vaccine series also need the vaccine.
Additionally, people with weakened immune systems or teens and young adults between 15 and 26 who started the series should get three doses instead of two.
Although adults up to 45 can still receive the vaccine, it’s not recommended for everyone older than 26. Still, a person older than 26 could choose to get vaccinated after talking to their doctor about possible benefits, even despite it being less effective in this age range, as more people have already been exposed to HPV by this point.
WATCH: Should children get the HPV Vaccine?
Vaccine hesitancy can impede people from getting the vaccine. The concern may come from parents who may feel the vaccine paves the way for early sexual activity. For this reason, some health practitioners are educating the public about the vaccine differently.
“I think rebranding the vaccine as a cancer vaccine, rather than an STD vaccine, is critically important,” says Dr. Teknos, who believes concerted efforts to “change the mindset around the vaccine” can make a difference.
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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