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Cancer Diary: The Tongue as an Early‑Warning System

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  Most people don’t think of the tongue as a place where cancer hides. We’re trained to watch moles, breasts, prostates, lymph nodes. But the tongue—this small, muscular, constantly moving piece of us—is one of the most information‑dense organs in the body. It changes color with oxygenation, it swells with allergies, it cracks with dehydration, it trembles with neurological disease. And sometimes, it develops cancer. Tongue cancer is real, and it’s more common than most people realize. It’s also one of the cancers that can be missed , especially when it grows in the back of the tongue where no one is looking. Understanding what’s normal, what’s suspicious, and what’s urgent is part of reclaiming agency over our bodies—one of the core themes of this diary. Two Tongues, Two Different Cancers The medical world divides the tongue into two zones, and each behaves differently: 1. The Oral Tongue (front two‑thirds) This is the part you can stick out at the doctor. Cancers here ten...