Common causes of tongue cancer

Many people don’t know that cancer can occur on the tongue, but there are indeed many people who are troubled by tongue cancer and are under a lot of pressure. They cannot eat normally, but they don’t know what causes tongue cancer. So, let’s learn about the common causes of tongue cancer.

The occurrence of tongue cancer is related to environmental factors, such as heat, chronic injury, ultraviolet rays, X-rays and other radioactive substances, which can become carcinogenic factors.

Tongue and cheek mucosal cancer can occur in areas of long-term and frequent stimulation such as residual roots, sharp tooth tips, and poor restorations. In addition, neuropsychiatric factors, endocrine factors, the body's immune status, and genetic factors have all been found to be related to the occurrence of tongue cancer.

① Chronic infection: Inflammation or ulcers on the tongue that do not heal for a long time may tend to become cancerous.

②Poor oral hygiene.

③ Mechanical stimulation: residual crowns and roots of teeth, sharp gingival edges, poor denture restorations, especially metal dentures, can cause long-term stimulation of the tongue mucosa to produce ulcers, and eventually lead to cancer.

④ Chemical factors: Aromatic hydrocarbons in tobacco are carcinogenic, especially for cigar or pipe smokers. Long-term drinkers of strong alcohol have 15 times more chance of developing oral cancer. This phenomenon shows that the stimulation of tobacco and alcohol is also one of the causes of tongue cancer.

Internal factors that induce tongue cancer:

① After the age of 40, the epithelial layer of the tongue gradually shrinks, and the resistance to harmful external stimuli is weakened, making it more susceptible to cancer;

② Malnutrition: Vitamin A and B vitamins deficiency can easily lead to cancer;

③ Other benign diseases of the tongue mucosa may become malignant, such as leukoplakia and erythema on the tongue mucosa, ulceration or nodules, which may lead to malignant transformation. Leukoplakia and erythema are called precancerous lesions because they have similar characteristics to squamous cell carcinoma in histology. Erythema and leukoplakia are often accompanied by oral cancer, especially erythema, which has a greater tendency to become malignant.