Support Is Vital Through Cancer
- Top Chef: New Orleans alum Shirley Chung, 47, has shared she is feeling “much stronger” after getting diagnosed with advanced stage tongue cancer in May, creding her medical team for her new feeding tube and also thanks to a new best pal she met in the waiting room, her “cancer warrior sister.”
- The Chinese-American Food Network star, who came to America at age 17 to pursue her dream of becoming a chef, thanked her supporters for the “love and support” in a new Instagram update.
- It’s unclear what led to Shirley Chung’s diagnosis, but it’s important to understand that symptoms of tongue cancer can include smoking and drinking alcohol, along with the human papillomavirus (HPV). Genetic risk factors are also possible with this type of head and neck cancer.
- 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. Be sure to see your doctor if you notice any lingering symptoms.
The Chinese-American Tournament of Champions alum, who came to America at age 17 to pursue her dream of becoming a chef, thanked her supporters for the “love and support” in a new Instagram update.
Read More
“With my new shining weapon G-Tube, I am feeling much stronger,” the Food Network star said then shared about her new friend Aubryn, her “cancer warrior sister” she met “in the waiting room for radiation.”
The pair bonded “over our love of fashion,” stylish Chung said, noting that they were “the only 2 girls” who “continued to dress up and put on makeup” for their appointments.
Sisterhood of Support
Chung and Aubryn also share a love of food, which is one of the most heartbreaking elements of having to go through something like tongue cancer.
“She is one week ahead of me on treatments, so her experience gave me a sense of clarity, and she is tougher than me! Handling all the pain with such grace.”
“We text each other everyday, she even checks on me when we are having the off week at home,” Chung continued. “We exchange list of food that we crave and wanna go eat after we are healed, and promised to cook for each other after we kick cancer’s ass.”
RELATED: We’re a Sisterhood: Getting Through Cancer Treatment Together
Added Chung, “I am so grateful to have met my cancer warrior sister here and I know our friendship will continue long after we are healed❤️👯♀️.”
Shirley Chung’s Tongue Cancer Diagnosis
Chung, who made the difficult decision to close the L.A. restaurant she owned with her husband Jimmy Lee, Ms Chi Cafe, so that she could focus on her recovery, first disclosed her diagnosis in July.
“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.”
“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 persistence in having another treatment option led her doctor to tell them about a special case that took place at the University of Chicago. They were informed 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.”
According to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (known as MSK), there are two types of tongue cancer surgeries, a glossectomy [full removal of the tongue] and a partial glossectomy [partial removal of the tongue]. Although Chung and her husband were told her only option was surgery, she ultimately chose another route—through radiation and chemotherapy.
“Radiation therapy for cancer of the tongue involves aiming high-energy beams of particles at the tumor,” MSK states. “When the particles reach the tumor, they destroy the cancer cells by damaging their DNA.
They said their radiation team works “closely with other members of your care team and will customize a treatment plan so precise that it factors in the size and shape of your tumor to the millimeter,” adding, “Their goal is not only to eliminate tumor cells but also to prevent the side effects of treatment by keeping the healthy cells in your mouth safe.”
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.
It’s unclear what led to Shirley Chung’s diagnosis, but it’s important to understand that symptoms of tongue cancer can 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
Why the HPV vaccine is so important in preventing cancer
Symptoms for 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.
Tongue Cancer and HPV
In recent years, it’s much more common to know someone who has a head or neck cancer like tongue cancer 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.
HPV and cancer risk: The basics
“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.
Of course, some people who develop head and/or neck cancers have no known risk factors for the condition. Genetics can play a role in this cancer, too.
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
