Carcinoma of the tongue is not frequently seen, even in rather large hospitals, but when it is seen for the first time in the hospital the diagnosis is often so evident and the disease so far advanced that it is too late for surgical intervention, provided such treatment may have been indicated early. In the incipient or early stage often the physician does not recognize the seriousness of the disease or the patient is too indifferent to heed the warning. The latter is especially true of patients in a charity hospital. Most otolaryngologists have been able to diagnose cancer much earlier in private patients than in those dependent on charity.
Gordon1 stated:
Cancer of the tongue claims the special interest of surgeons for several reasons. It, not infrequently, causes more suffering than any other form of cancer, and, in men, is said to kill in about eighteen