Several cancer survivors worldwide receive new tongues made from their legs.
According to Science Daily, this innovative technique frequently helps patients regain their ability to speak clearly and swallow regular meals after a patient recovers from oral cancer.
Several Patients Worldwide Had Their Tongues Replaced With Leg Muscles
Charlotte Webster, 27, started to have recurrent ulcers but explained them away by feeling exhausted from her lengthy flight attendant hours.
She was sent to a specialist for a biopsy after making many appointments with the dentist and general practitioner after developing uncomfortable, white areas on her tongue.
Test results showed the 27-year-old had a tumor in May. A few weeks later, she had a nine-hour procedure in which a portion of her tongue was removed and replaced with muscle from her leg.
The student midwife told Daily Star that her new two-toned tongue had a freckle on it, giving it the appearance of a drumstick lollipop.
Charlotte, whose ulcers first appeared in 2018, spent the following two weeks with a tracheotomy, a hole in the neck through which a breathing tube is introduced. Charlotte had no clue when she would be able to speak or normally eat again.
Charlotte shocked physicians with her quick recovery despite the taxing operation and was thrilled to learn cancer had not spread.
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Meanwhile, reports said that the tongue cancer that Cameron Newsom had was not discovered for three years.
Newsom, an American mother of one from Colorado, had no idea that a white spot on her tongue was stage four cancer. Her treatment continued with removing the tumor from her tongue following a successful round of chemotherapy.
She underwent a difficult operation by surgeons at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The left part of her tongue was removed during the nine-hour procedure and later restored with thigh muscle tissue.
She painstakingly taught herself how to talk and eat again, taking a very long time to recuperate and fully acclimate to her newly created tongue.
The strangest moment of the ordeal was when Newsom felt a scratchy sensation on the back of her tongue near her thigh. Even the tongue hair on her legs had begun to sprout.
About Tongue Cancer
Mayo Clinic added that cancer that starts in the tongue cells is called tongue cancer.
A variety of cancers can impact the tongue. However, tongue cancer most frequently starts in the thin, flat squamous cells that cover the tongue's surface. The type of cells involved influences the prognosis and course of treatment for tongue cancer.
A person might develop tongue cancer in the mouth (oral tongue cancer). This particular kind of tongue cancer is frequently detected when it is early and more amenable to surgical removal.
Tongue cancer may develop in the throat near the base of the tongue with minimal symptoms (hypopharyngeal tongue cancer). Typically, cancer near the base of the tongue is discovered after it has progressed to the lymph nodes in the neck, has a bigger tumor, and is at an advanced stage.
Surgery to remove the cancer is often the first step in treating tongue cancer. Additionally, targeted medication therapy, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy could be suggested.
Several doctors also use the anterolateral thigh perforator flap (ALT) technique. According to News24, surgeons usually remove a 6 × 8 cm chunk of fat and skin from the left thigh and fashion it into a new tongue. To link the new tongue to a neck vein and artery before the sutures are placed, doctors must first shape the new tongue.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is increasingly linked to tumors near the base of the tongue, significantly impacting cancer's prognosis and course of therapy.
RELATED ARTICLE: New, Shorter Treatment for HPV-Associated Oral Cancer Promises Excellent Disease Control, Fewer Side-Effects
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