Yes--Thank you for posting this.

I'm extremely happy for Michael Douglas.

Every time he comes to mind, I can't help but think of the despicable tabloid photos I saw of him during the time of his treatment, showing him gaunt and thin. The tabloid slugs did the same thing to Michael Landon during his battle with cancer back in the 90s. It just doesn't get much lower than that.

Anyway...I'm not an oral cancer patient. I came to this forum a year or so ago inquiring about lip cancer because I had some questions about a lot of precancerous skin (sun damage) on my lower lip, something I've since received treatment for.

But I do have an inquiry to make here today regarding early detection of cancer at the back of the tongue, something I'd like to be proactive about preventing. Unfortunately, I've read that early detection of this is often "difficult," but I don't understand why that is the case, what with modern optical devices so easily available. What would be so difficult about scoping, with magnification, the side of a patient's tongue in the back to look for very early changes as a routine part of doing an oral exam? I don't get it. Does tongue cancer have to be the size of a walnut (Michael Douglas' description of his own tongue cancer in an account I read) before an ENT recognizes it as something that should be biopsied?

I had a nasal scoping done today by an ENT for a GERD-related throat issue and when he did the preliminary exam of my mouth, he didn't even pull out my tongue to look at the back/side of it, let alone use any optical aid to look at it.

Thanks.