Shirley Chung's Tongue Cancer Battle
- “Top Chef” alum Shirley Chung, 48, has celebrated yet another milestone as she recovers from stage four tongue cancer, a type of oral cancer that is also referred to as a head and neck cancer—she has had her “G-tube,” a gastrostomy feeding tube insertion, removed.
- 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.
Chung, who was a finalist in “Top Chef: New Orleans” and “Top Chef: Charleston,” often takes to social media to keep her fans updated on her recovery journey and we’re delighted to see her continued strength and positive attitude throughout it all.
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According to MedlinePlus, a G-tube is “a gastrostomy feeding tube insertion” that is the “placement of a feeding tube through the skin and the stomach wall,” which goes directly into the stomach.
She continued, “It helped me stay alive, medicine, water, nutritional shakes, were all fed through it for over 6 months. I am healing, and going to therapy to relearn how to swallow and speak.
“Although I still have a small part of my tongue that’s bleeding, but I am well enough to consume meds, water and food through mouth the last 3 weeks.”
Chung explained how she just underwent a “quick procedure” to remove the G-Tube, noting that the “small hole” in her stomach will close up in less than a week.
“I completed another chapter of cancer fighting journey. Almost There!” she concluded.
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A fan of Chung’s commented on her bravery and resilience through her cancer fight, writing, “So much inspiration and love here. Shirley you are really brave, very magnetic and such a beautiful person.
“Thank you for sharing these intimate times us. Your fans.”
Another one of her supporters wrote, “Yes!!! Small wins are the big ones. From one cancer patient to another I’m sending you love and light and healing.
Following another fan’s comment, which read, “As they say, we live PET scan to PET scan at this point, but you’re moving forward with great positive strides. May you continue to be blessed with healing,” Chung replied, “My next PET is the end of the month, I am looking forward to see my progress.”
One of Chung’s friends also wrote, “Incredible. You are just ‘wow!’ I rather kinda like the hair, Shirls! how far you’ve come.”
Chung then replied, “Love You. I rub the crystals you gave me everyday for healing power.”
The Chinese-American chef has certainly come a long way since going public with her cancer diagnosis on July 26, 2024, which she shared alongside footage of her shaving her head.
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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.
Her most recent procedure was to have her “G-tube” removed, which she has celebrated as just another step in her healing process.
Understanding Gastrostomy Feeding Tubes (G-tube)
Chung has just had her G-tube removed, something which MedlinePlus describes as a “gastrostomy feeding tube insertion” which is put in place through something called an endoscopy.
“After the endoscopy tube is inserted into the stomach, the skin over the left side of the belly (abdomen) area is cleaned and numbed. Your surgeon makes a small surgical cut in this area,” MedlinePlus explains.
“The G-tube is inserted through this cut into the stomach. The tube is small, flexible, and hollow. Your surgeon uses stitches to close the stomach around the tube.”
The procedure is often performed for a variety of reasons and the length of time a patient needs a G-tube can range from a short amount of time to permanently.
Patients who may need G-tubes may be babies with birth defects of the esophagus, stomach or mouth, anyone who has trouble swallowing, can’t eat enough food normally, or those who breathe in food while consuming a meal.
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.
HPV and Cancer Risk: The Basics
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.
Staying Grateful Amid Battling Disease & Coping With Hair Loss
It’s wonderful to see that Shirley Chung has been able to maintain a positive outlook through disease. After a diagnosis, it’s understandably extremely difficult to feel grateful for, well, maybe anything. However, studies prove that patients who are able to stay uplifted and positive often have better treatment outcomes. That’s why mindset and attitude can be extremely valuable tools.
RELATED: Patients Do Better When They are Less Stressed
“The patients who do well with cancer, they live life with gratitude in terms of everything,” Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal cancer surgeon and Director of the Cedars-Sinai Colorectal Cancer Center, tells SurvivorNet.
“They’re grateful, not for cancer, but they’re grateful for an opportunity to know that life is finite. They live life with [saying] ‘I love you’ to their husband, to their wife, to their kids. They can appreciate it for one of the first times ever because they know it may not be forever that they get to do this. Those are the patients that tend to do well with processing and also living a long, long life despite a diagnosis.”
For many people going through cancer treatment, changes to the physical appearance like hair loss associated with chemotherapy, are a huge emotional burden. It can be difficult to adjust when you’re struggling to feel like yourself because you don’t look like yourself.
“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 in an earlier interview. To cope, Dr. Boardman suggested reaching out to other survivors who have been through a similar situation if you feel comfortable doing so.
“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. She stressed that anxiety over hair loss doesn’t just affect women, as men going through cancer often struggle with it as well.
For those who can’t stand the idea of being seen without their hair, there are plenty of options available, such as wigs, head wraps, and hats. Some survivors have even created products specifically for people with cancer so they can feel comfortable in their own skin.
Living With Cancer: Coping With Hair Loss & the Anxiety it Brings
Dr. Boardman also noted that some people may not feel comfortable talking about hair loss, and that’s OK, too.
“To encourage them to bring that up, to encourage them to talk about it, I think can be very helpful,” she said. “But also, for patients it might be something that they don’t talk about. [And they should] feel good and strong about saying, ‘This is something that I don’t feel like discussing right now, and I’ll let you know when I do.’”
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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