Tongue Cancer: The Lived Experience 

The number of patients presenting with tongue cancer seems to be increasing. Women who don’t smoke or drink are being diagnosed and there may be an increase in patient mortality.

Dr Norman Swan, a multi-award-winning producer, broadcaster, and investigative journalist, takes you on an exploration into the patient perspective with people affected by tongue cancer.

Dr Norman Swan spends an hour chatting with Ms Gretchen Fox, Ms Lora Winter and Mr Jimmy Halastanis about what it means to receive a tongue cancer diagnosis, the challenges they have faced, the effect the disease has had on their lives and families, and what they would urge clinicians to consider in their relationships with patients.

Aim: To illustrate the multidisciplinary nature of disease management of tongue cancer.

Learning Objective: Issues central to patients affected by tongue cancer will be used to illustrate the multidisciplinary nature of disease management, it is hoped that by the end of this session participants will recognise:

• the impact of diagnosis for patients

• how patients experience the treatment

• survivorship issues that are most important to the patients

This session was part of a series of five interactive educational webinars, developed by Professor David Wiesenfeld, VCCC Alliance Research and Education Lead for Head and Neck Cancer, to address key questions in the management and treatment of tongue cancer under a multidisciplinary lens.

The series illustrated the multidisciplinary nature of disease management and the need for the incorporation of all treatment modalities to achieve optimal outcomes and highlighted cutting-edge science from across the VCCC Alliance that could improve outcomes for this patient group.