Chef Shirley Chung, two-time finalist on the cooking show Excellent chef, has been diagnosed with tongue cancer and is undergoing intensive treatment for the disease. The chef and owner of Ms Chi Cafe, which placed third Top Chef: New Orleans and was a finalist three years later Top Chef: Charleston, She shared the news on Instagram over the weekend, alongside a series of photos and videos showing her shaving her head with the help of loved ones.
Chung revealed in the caption of the post that her tumor was shrinking thanks to chemotherapy sessions, but noted that she still had “a lot more to do.” She shared in a separate Instagram post that she would be pausing her restaurant operations so she could focus on her treatment and recovery.
Tongue cancer isn’t a common disease. Here’s what you need to know about it and what Chung shared about her illness.
What did Shirley Chung say about her tongue cancer?
Chung wrote in an Instagram post that she had a series of dental issues that began last December. “I bit my tongue badly; I fractured a tooth and had to have it extracted and get an implant. (…) We thought it was because I was grinding my teeth a lot,” she wrote. Chung said she was “too busy” to see an ear, nose and throat specialist, but her symptoms continued to worsen.
“In late May, ulcers broke out in my mouth and my oral surgeon discovered a tumor hidden under my tongue,” she wrote. “A few days later, I was diagnosed with stage 4 tongue cancer because the cancer cells had also spread to my lymph nodes.”
Chung said she was “very calm” when she heard the news. “As a leader, I’ve always (thrived) under pressure,” she said. “I was extremely focused on getting all the tests and scans done as quickly as possible, so I could start treatment plans.”
But Chung said she “broke down in tears” after her Cedars Sinai doctor called her in early June to discuss treatment plans. “All I heard was, ‘Option 1, surgery (meaning) total removal of the tongue,’” she said. Her husband, Jimmy Lee, asked doctors if there was an option that would allow Chung to keep her tongue.
Chung said she was told about a “unicorn case” at the University of Chicago where a patient — and fellow chef — was cured of tongue cancer after receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatments. “A higher survival rate or keeping my tongue? I chose to keep my tongue,” she said. “I’m a fighter, I’m a chef, I can be that unicorn too.”
Chung said she had just completed six weeks of chemotherapy and still had more treatments to go through. “Going to the hospital four times a week for injections is like a full-time job,” she wrote. “My tumor is shrinking, I’m talking much better, and I can eat most normal foods now.”
Chung said she has a “long and difficult road to recovery,” but added that “your love and support will keep me going. Encourage me, Shirley Chung 2.0 will be reborn in 2025!”
What is tongue cancer?
There are two main types of tongue cancer. Oral tongue cancer is cancer that develops on the front two-thirds of the tongue, while oropharyngeal tongue cancer forms at the base of the tongue in the back of the mouth and can spread to the throat, Dr. Deepa Danan, a head and neck surgeon at Moffitt Cancer Center, tells Yahoo Life.
Tongue cancer accounts for about 1% of new cancer cases, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
“Over the past decade, the number of tongue cancers diagnosed has been increasing slightly each year in the United States,” Dr. Neal Akhave, assistant professor of thoracic/head and neck medical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, tells Yahoo Life. Tongue cancer is typically a type of squamous cell carcinoma, Akhave says. Tongue cancers that develop in the front two-thirds of the mouth are typically caused by tobacco or alcohol use, but “nonsmokers and nondrinkers can get them, too,” Akhave says.
Oropharyngeal tongue cancer can also be linked to alcohol or tobacco use, but it is most commonly linked to the human papillomavirus (HPV), Akhave says.
What are the symptoms of tongue cancer?
Symptoms of tongue cancer can be confused with other conditions, making it difficult to diagnose at first, Dr. Amit Kochhar, a head and neck surgeon and director of the facial nerve disorders program at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, California, tells Yahoo Life. “It’s usually detected by a dentist,” he says.
Here are some of the main symptoms a person with tongue cancer may experience, according to Moffitt Cancer Center:
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Red or white spots on the tongue
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Sores, bumps or canker sores that do not heal
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A sore, swollen, or bleeding tongue that does not improve
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Sore throat when swallowing
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Difficulty moving the tongue or jaw
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A feeling that something is stuck in your throat
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Persistent hoarseness
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Ear pain
“Patients typically come to the dentist for a routine cleaning and the problem is detected,” Kochhar says. “The classic case is where the patient tells the dentist, ‘I bit my tongue and it’s not healing.’ From there, most dentists will refer the patient to an ENT or oral surgeon for evaluation.
“We usually do a biopsy and then we’ll know if it’s cancer or something else,” Kochhar says.
What is the prognosis for tongue cancer?
It depends. “The standard treatment for oral tongue cancer is usually surgery, possibly followed by radiation and chemotherapy,” Danan says.
But the stage of the cancer matters. “Most tongue cancers are caught early, before they spread below the collarbone,” Akhave says. “However, many people have cancer that affects the lymph nodes in the neck.”
If tongue cancer is caught early, doctors may recommend removing the tumor and a margin of tissue around it. “Often, the tumor is then allowed to heal on its own,” Kochhar says. Some patients may need to have a larger portion of the tongue removed and then undergo reconstructive surgery to rebuild the tongue.
Kochhar says it is “exceptionally rare” to remove the entire tongue, but it may be recommended in cases of large or aggressive tumors.
But Kochhar points out that the tongue is an important organ for speech, swallowing and taste, making this cancer treatment difficult to treat. “It can have a significant impact on communication, even though patients usually do very well with speech therapy,” he says. People who have to have their tongue removed completely may have communication problems and may need to use a feeding tube because of swallowing problems, Kochhar says. “Obviously, quality of life would be reduced,” he says.
Chung isn’t the only high-profile chef to grapple with the potential loss of his tongue due to cancer. In 2007, Grant Achatz, an award-winning chef who recently appeared as himself in the season 3 finale of The bearunderwent radiation and chemotherapy to avoid major surgery on his tongue after being diagnosed with stage IV squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. Although his treatment temporarily caused him to lose his sense of taste — an experience he documented in his memoir, Life at stake — he is now in complete remission.