Shirley Chung's Tongue Cancer Battle
- “Top Chef” alum Shirley Chung, 48, who shaved her head before starting treatment for stage four tongue cancer, a type of oral cancer that is also referred to as a head and neck cancer, is growing her hair back and returning to normalcy as she recovers from her cancer fight. Just few days ago Chung was seen at Valley Goat, a new eatery owned by chef Stephanie Izard and Boka Restaurant Group, which she dubbed her first dinner outing since her recovery journey began.
- 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 unclear whether Chung has experienced a change in her taste buds, which can occur during chemotherapy treatment. According to the Memorial Sloan Kettering and Cancer Center (MSKCC), chemotherapy treatments can cause taste changes that at times can make it hard to eat. Taste changes vary from person to person amid cancer treatments, however, changes in taste often return to normal when treatment ends.
- Losing hair or thinning hair while undergoing chemotherapy is a common side effect. And while hair loss is not a medically significant or dangerous side effect of chemotherapy, for many women it can be a blow to their self-esteem.
- If patients are concerned about hair loss from treatment, they can talk to their doctor about scalp-cooling caps, wigs or head coverings, or other methods that may help.
The Chinese-American chef, a finalist of “Top Chef: New Orleans” and “Top Chef: Charleston,” took to social media over the weekend to share some happy memories with loved ones and friends at a new restaurant in Northern California called Valley Goat, a new eatery owned by chef Stephanie Izard and Boka Restaurant Group.
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Chung continued, “Also shoutout to this new goat team, who made all the special mods requests perfectly for my diet on a soft opening night, so I can eat ‘normally’ with my friends.
“I am grateful, love you so much my dear friends. #chefshirleychung #valleygoat #friendsandfamily #fuckcancer #shirley1.9 #cancerwarrior.”
Izard also shared some of the same photos on her Instagram page, to which Chung commented, “Went to Chicago Goat right before my treatments started, now my first restaurant after is Valley Goat! Such a great night! Love you Steph!!”
We understand that Chung shaved her head before she began treatment for tongue cancer, something which causes hair loss in patients, but it’s unclear whether Chung has experienced a change in her taste buds, which can occur during chemotherapy treatment.
According to the Memorial Sloan Kettering and Cancer Center (MSKCC), Chemotherapy treatments can cause taste changes that at times can make it hard to eat. Changes in your sense of taste or smell can affect your food choices, eating habits, and how you enjoy food.
“You may need to change your diet because of taste changes. This can help you get enough nutrition and keep you at a healthy weight. It can also help with your recovery. You may also have dry mouth from less saliva secretion (spit in your mouth). This can make it hard to swallow food. Using an alcohol-free mouthwash or gargling with water can help you make more saliva. Sugar-free hard candies and chewing gum may also help.”
As Per MSKCC, changes in taste (which are normally salty, sweet, savory, bitter, and sour) can become bitter, metallic, and vary from person to person amid cancer treatments, however, changes in taste often return to normal when treatment ends.
We’re delighted to see Chung getting out to support her fellow chef and returning to normalcy amid her cancer recovery journey. Chung has a lot to be grateful for and her post comes just days after Food Network announced their new competition series “House of Knives,” which Chung competed in before cancer treatment, premiered.
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It’s important to remember that cancer doesn’t have to prevent you from achieving your goals and enjoying life. In an earlier interview with SurvivorNet, Evelyn Reyes-Beato admitted she was really thrown through a loop when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Prior to her diagnosis, she was planning to go back to school, but the diagnoses completely threw her off track.
“When I got cancer, I was like f**k that, I’m not going to waste what’s left of my life going to school. If I’m gonna die, I’m not gonna die at school. I’m gonna die on a beach, I’m gonna die in the Bahamas, in Paris, in Australia … somewhere, but I’m not gonna die in school,” she said.
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Eventually, Reyes-Beato realized that she could still achieve her goals, even with cancer. She found the things that brought her joy in life – “my husband, my doggies, my brother, my family” – and kept on living for that joy. She ended up going back to school as well.
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Shirley Chung’s Tongue Cancer Diagnosis
Chung, who made the difficult decision to close her L.A. restaurant called Ms. Chi Cafe while she focuses on her recovery, first announced 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 said in an Instagram post.
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“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.”
While receiving her diagnosis, all Chung said she heard was “‘option 1, surgery, 100% removal of your tongue’ … Jimmy was holding it together for both of us, asking if we have any option that I can keep my tongue and the survival rates.”
Thankfully, Chung and her husband’s curiosity and determination to find another treatment option led her doctor to tell them 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 in Chicago, 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, writing, “Heyyy loves, it’s been a while since my last update.I have completed a few milestones in my cancer fighting journey in the last 2 months.
“I finished my 10 weeks radiation and chemo in patient treatments at @uchicago, and ring the victory bells with my treatment team and friends + family by my side! And as I thought the toughest part of cancer has passed…I experienced the hardest / worst days of my life during recovery. ”
She then noted how just 2 weeks after undergoing treatment, she suffered major discomfort as a side effect from radiation and chemotherapy all across her body.
Chung explained, “My neck, lips and jawline were covered with blisters from the radiation, my tongue and throat were peeling & bleeding all the time. I couldn’t sleep through the night, was waking up every 2 hours coughing up blood and mucus.
“My days were filled with clean and rinse my mouth, clean and change dressing on my neck, self inject pain meds every 3 hours, tube feed nutritional shakes and water. My pain finally got better 3 weeks ago. The first sip of water was glorious, it was still super painful, but after 3 months of not being able to swallow anything, it was a small win!”
Chung revealed she has since been able to learn how to drink smoothies again, as well as eat soups, ice cream and egg custard.
After noting her taste buds are slowing returning to normally, she added, “I can taste 50% of sweet and savory and all the warm spices.”
Chung 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.
Tongue Cancer: Understanding the Cause of Head & Neck Cancers
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.
- 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, as per Cedars-Sinai include:
- Smoking and drinking alcohol [smokers are 5x more likely to develop tongue cancer than nonsmokers]
- Human papillomavirus (HPV)
- African-American men have a greater risk than caucasians
It’s unclear what led to Shirley Chung’s diagnosis, but it’s important to understand that symptoms of tongue cancer can 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
Tongue cancer may be hard to spot in its early stages, however, when the cancer develops, patients may experience trouble with swallowing, voice changes, pain in the ear, pain in the throat, or a feeling of fullness in the throat.
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As for how throat cancer is diagnosed, it’s usually done through X-rays, CT scans, and PET scans. A diagnosis 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, and president and scientific director of University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland, Ohio, told SurvivorNet during a previous interview.
The vast majority of humans 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 percent 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.
Hair Loss Amid Cancer
Losing hair or thinning hair while undergoing chemotherapy is a common side effect. And while hair loss is not a medically significant or dangerous side effect of chemotherapy, for many women it can be a blow to their self-esteem.
“It can have implications about how they feel about themselves,” says Dr. Renata Urban, a gynecologic oncologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.
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Hair loss during treatment occurs due to the drugs targeting quickly dividing cells throughout the body. Both cancer cells and hair cells fall into this category. Women may also lose their eyebrows and eyelashes, too. All of this hair loss can have a big effect on your self-esteem.
For most cancer patients, the hair will start growing back shortly after treatment, and in the meantime, some cancer patients choose to embrace their new look.
While hair loss can be very difficult to deal with, many women eventually consider it an empowering part of their cancer fight. Thinking of hair loss as a temporary setback rather than a permanent problem can help some women, and men, make peace with it.
SurvivorNet has tips and resources for anyone facing this side effect and struggling to manage it.
“For cancer patients, losing one’s hair can be unbelievably stressful. To start with, the dread of losing one’s hair can lead to some sleepless nights and feelings of anxiety,” Dr. Samantha Boardman, a New York-based psychiatrist and author, told SurvivorNet.
Chemotherapy can cause hair loss. It usually begins about three to four weeks after chemotherapy and continues throughout treatment.
Radiation is another treatment that can lead to hair loss if the hair is in the path of the tumor being treated. For example, radiation for a brain tumor may cause hair loss on the head.
“If you do lose hair, it will regrow several weeks or months after treatment,” radiation oncologist at GensisCare Dr. James Taylor previously told SurvivorNet.
“Fortunately, for most patients, hair loss is not a concern when having radiation therapy.”
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Most patients can expect regrowth four to six weeks after treatment. However, it is possible when your hair grows back, you may notice some changes in its color and texture.
Dr. Boardman suggests connecting with others experiencing cancer treatment like yours and asking them for first-hand advice.
“Talk to people who have been through it, get their advice, voice your concerns to your caregiver, and see what they can do,” Dr. Boardman added.
If losing your hair is a concern for you before cancer treatment, know you have options like wigs, hats, wraps, and more.
Understanding Scalp Cooling Devices
Some people choose to wear a cold cap during infusion to help protect their hair follicles. Scalp-cooling devices have been approved by the FDA recently, first for breast cancer and then several other cancers.
That means wearing cold caps or special cooling caps before, during, and after each chemotherapy treatment.
The caps, which are tightly fitting and strap-on helmet-style, are filled with a gel coolant that’s chilled to between -15 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit.
WATCH: What is a scalp-cooling device?
Essentially, the caps “cause vasoconstriction, or a narrowing of the blood vessels bringing blood to the scalp,” Dr. Renata Urban, gynecologic oncologist at the University of Washington, explains.
By constricting the blood flow to the scalp, the caps limit the circulating chemotherapy that reaches the hair follicles, protecting them from some of the chemo’s damaging effects.
The cold also decreases the activity of the hair follicles, which slows down cell division and makes the follicles less affected by the chemotherapy medicine.
Dr. Julie Nangia, a medical oncologist at Baylor College of Medicine and a lead author on one of the major studies of the device, says 50% of women were able to keep their hair after four rounds of chemotherapy, and added: “Without the devices, 100% of patients lost their hair.”
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There have been some safety questions when it comes to scalp-cooling, but Dr. Nangia says that when given to people with solid tumors (like breast, ovarian, colon, and lung cancer), the devices are safe.
Choose a Wig or Other Head Covering
Some women choose to cut their hair very short or even shave their head before their hair starts falling out, and then buy a wig or other type of head covering.
If you’re thinking about buying a wig, consider buying it before your treatment starts, or soon after. Cancer.org suggests asking if the wig can be adjusted as you might need a smaller size as you lose hair. To match your hair color, they recommend cutting a swatch from the top front of your head, where your hair is lightest or try a completely new hairstyle or color.
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Wigs and other scalp coverings may be partially or fully covered by your health insurance. If so, make sure the prescription says “cranial prosthesis.” (Don’t use the word wig.) Someone on your cancer care team can likely recommend wig shops in your area.
Hair Loss Is Temporary
Losing your hair can feel overwhelming in the moment. Experts tell SurvivorNet that being aware of the timing can help you better cope. Hair loss typically begins about three to four weeks after you begin chemotherapy for ovarian cancer and will continue throughout treatment. Most women can expect regrowth around four to six weeks after they complete treatment, though you may see some changes to color and texture.
But it’s important to remember that your hair will grow back after chemotherapy ends.
Coping With Chemo-Related Hair Loss
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
If you’re in the midst of a cancer battle and experiencing hair loss, here are some questions you may consider asking your doctor:
- Are there any treatments to help manage or minimize my hair loss?
- What are scalp-cooling devices and how do they work?
- Do you recommend scalp-cooling devices?
- What other options are available to help me cope with hair loss?
- Can you recommend a wig maker?
- I’m struggling mentally with my hair loss, can you recommend a therapist to talk to?
- How can I find a local support group with people going through similar things?
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
