Squamous cell carcinoma, or SCC, is a type of cancer that occurs commonly in the tongue. The National Cancer Institute estimates that SCC of the tongue will be diagnosed in 7,690 men and 3,300 women in the United States in 2010. This type of cancer is largely preventable. Years of research prove that smoking and alcohol consumption are the main causes of tongue cancer. However, they don’t explain every occurrence of this disease.
Smoking and Tongue Cancer
Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of tongue cancer. Dr. Moreno-Lopez and colleagues from the Complutense University of Madrid found that people who smoke a pack of cigarettes per day are three times more likely to get tongue cancer than non-smokers. While most of the research has focused on cigarettes, other types of smoking--such as pipe tobacco, cigars or marijuana--also increase the risk for tongue cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, no tobacco products are safe, all contain cancer-causing agents and all have been linked to the development of oral cancers. This includes smokeless tobacco, also known as chewing tobacco, which contains 28 cancer-causing agents.
Alcohol and Tongue Cancer
Moderate to heavy drinking is highly linked with the development of tongue cancer. Dr. Irene Tramacere, a researcher from the Institute of Pharmacological Research in Milan, Italy, and her colleagues put together the results of 43 studies that looked at the effect of alcohol on tongue cancer. They found that 50 g of alcohol per day (a little more than three glasses of wine or three bottles of beer) raises your risk of getting tongue cancer by three times. These researchers also found that a person is 13 times more likely to get tongue cancer than a non-drinker if he drinks 125 g of alcohol (for example, nine bottles of beer) per day. The combination of alcohol with cigarettes increases this risk even more. According to Dr. Ide and colleagues from the University of Occupational and Environmental Health in Kitakyusyu, Japan, the combination of smoking and drinking elevates the risk of getting oral cancer by three times.
Other Causes of Tongue Cancer
The human papilloma virus, or HPV, is known to cause genital warts. It is associated with the development of cervical cancer in women. It also may be related to the development of oral cancer, although the jury is still out on this topic. For example, in 1996, Dr. Cruz, from the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and Oral Pathology in the Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam, and colleagues found the HPV virus in 54 percent of their patients with oral cancer. They didn’t find any evidence of the virus in a sample of people who had no diagnosis of oral cancer. In contrast, a study out of the Mayo Clinic in 2008 by Xin-Hua Liang and colleagues found that only 2 percent of their patients carried the virus.
Areca nut, often referred to as the betel nut, is a seed from a palm tree that grows in tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. It is called the betel nut because it is often wrapped in leaves from the betel vine. People chew this for its effect as a stimulant, to curb hunger and as a breath freshener. Chewing of this nut, as well as the betel leaf, is highly linked to the development of oral cancer. According to the World Health Organization, oral cancer is found more often in areas where the betel nut is chewed.
Chronic periodontitis is a disease that occurs when the gums are inflamed for a long time. The bone and other tissues around the teeth become infected and may begin to die off. While this has not been studied as much as some of the other causes of tongue cancer, Dr. Mike Tezal, from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and colleagues provide some evidence that there may be a link. In their 2007 study in the Archives of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, they found an association between chronic periodontitis and the risk of tongue cancer. The researchers suggest that their results need to be confirmed by larger studies.
References
- Oral Oncology; Risk of Oral Cancer Associated with Tobacco Smoking, Alcohol Consumption and Oral Hygiene: A Case-Control Study in Madrid, Spain; LA Moreno-López, GC Esparza-Gómez, A González-Navarro, R Cerero-Lapiedra, MJ González-Hernández, V Domínguez-Rojas; Volume 36, 170-174, 2000
- Oral Oncology; Meta-Analysis of Alcohol Drinking and Oral and Pharyngeal Cancers. Part 1: Overall Results and Dose-Risk Relation; Irene Tramacere, Eva Negri, Vincenzo Bagnardi, Werner Garavello, Matteo Rota, Lorenza Scotti, Farhad Islami, Giovanni Corrao, Paolo Boffetta, Carlo La Vecchia; Volume 46, 497-503,2010
- Oral Diseases; Cigarette Smoking, Alcohol Drinking and Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Mortality in Japan; R Ide, T Mizoue, Y Fujino, Y Hoshiyama, K Sakata, A Tamakoshi and T Yoshimura; Volume 14, 314-319, 2008
- European Journal of Cancer: Part B, Oral Oncology; Age-Dependence of Human Papillomavirus DNA Presence in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas; IB Cruz, PJ Snijders, RD Steenbergen, CJ Meijer, GB Snow, JM Walboomers, I van der Waal; Volume 32, 55-62,1996.
- Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery; Prevalence and Significance of Human
