Actually the first line of defense with NON HPV related tongue cancer is surgery! This way they get the bulk of the tumor or all of it and then if it has perineural involvement (with the size you described - very possible) they would radiate you and give you chemo too.

The problem is this cancer doesn't respond as well to chemo radiation as the HPV related cancers do. With radiation it's next to impossible to tell if they have gotten it all this is why recurrences happen - a PET or CT does not pick up microscopic cancer -this includes any seeding to the nodes (and all it takes is one cell left standing).

Surgery will give you clear margins hopefully - then radiation and chemo will kill anything that may be left over. Salvage surgery after is a harder recovery because you have damaged and irradiated tissue to work with so healing is poor.

I would seriously ask for a second opinion. In very small tumors you may get away without radiation and chemo if you do surgery... but based on the size and progression of your tumor it sounds large. I would hit it with both barrels. It may not start off as aggressive but once it starts to move can become quite aggressive.

Your tumor sounds very similar to mine. It was a well differentiated slow growing tumor - mostly below the surface. My dr. removed a third to half of my tongue, and 40 nodes (despite showing negative on two scans) I had one positive node. Then he cooked me.

BTW - surgery is far more recoverable than radiation.
PS: veering off to the side is very normal for a tongue that has a tumor... this is one of the things they look for when giving you an examination.

best of luck.. it's not an easy decision to make.