Hikerdeb,

I was in your shoes in 2005, no risk factors and was diagnosed with SCC of my lateral tongue, stage 1. Over the years I meet many OC survivors and most of those that I met had no risk factors. I also did a lot of research, asked a lot of questions, trying to find out why I developed oral cancer. The best quess was irritation from my teeth (but there were no jagged edges), so I'm in the "unknown" cause group. As others have stated, don't waste your time now trying to find out how you got OC. Spend the time educated yourself about the possible treatments, medical terms, best hospitals and doctors.

Most likely they will do additional surgery on your tongue to make sure they got it all and you have clear margins. They may recommend a neck dissection also. Have you had a CT or PET scan yet? This should be done to make sure it has not spread.

One thing I learn the hard why is where you are treated and who treats you is very important. I had a great surgeon (ENT), however, my first surgery was done at a small local hospital. I was given the "all clear" after my surgery. As I found out more about my cancer, I decided to go to a larger hospital for a second opinion. I needed to have the biopsy slides from my surgery sent to this hospital, so before sending them, the pathologist looked at the slides again and found out he "misread" one of them - there was cancer at the margin in one of the specimens.

Over the next few months I went to a number of hospitals, saw many specialists, and had a few PET scans. Good news they could not detect any cancer from the scans, however, there was the uncertainty that there could still be a few cancer cells. The specialists initially recommended surgery, then radiation, or just "watchful waiting". I opted for radiation.

It wasn't until after I had radiation, that I found the OCF website and forum and learned so much more. OCF is the best source of information on oral cancer I have found. One thing that is usually done at the larger cancer centers where they treat a lot of oral cancer patients is to conduct a biopsy during the surgery to make sure they get clean margins. This is referred to as "frozen sections" - a pathologist is in the OR and will examine the tissue as it is removed. Had this been done during my first surgery, I would not have needed radiation.

Then in 2010 I had a recurrence - same area as initial cancer. So over the next 1.5 years I had 3 more surgeries. In my case, my speech and eating have been somewhat compromised but not severely. Everyone is different and it will depend on what is done during your surgery. Many OC patients have speech and swallow therapy to help minimize the effects.

If possible, go to a major cancer center and/or get a second opinion. When I had the recurrence in 2010, I finally ended up one of the best hospitals for head and neck cancer. Far superior in so many ways.

Good luck!