Aaron Whittington loses half of his tongue to aggressive cancer

A 16-year-old Brisbane boy has had almost half his tongue removed after a sinister ulcer turned into something much more serious.

Aaron Whittington at home in Bracken Ridge after having a rare Squamous cell Carcinoma removed from his tongue. Picture Lachie Millard

A 16-year-old boy has had almost half his tongue removed after a sinister ulcer turned into a Grade 4 cancer with experts warning a spike in tongue cancers remains unknown.

Tongue cancer rates are rising 3 per cent each year according to the latest Australian Health and Welfare data, with the numbers more alarming for women aged over 45, where a 4 per cent year-on-year increase is being detected.

Tongue cancer in all persons increased from 2.8 cases per 100,000 people in 1982 to 5.0 per 100,000 people in 2024.

There were more than 1300 cases of tongue cancer reported across the country last year, compared to just 283 cases four decades ago.

Senior research fellow in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, Dr Rebecca Venchiarutti said her clinicians and researchers in NSW has previously shown the concerning increase in incidence of oral tongue cancer in young (under 45) women with no history of smoking and noted that pediatric oral cancer is very rare.

When a young, fit and healthy Aaron Whittington, now 16, developed a persistent ulcer on the side of his tongue his GP treated it with multiple rounds of antibiotics.

Aaron Whittington was young, fit and healthy when he was diagnosed. Picture: Lachie Millard

But after there was no improvement he was finally taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital emergency department where a biopsy revealed he had a squamous cell carcinoma.

Megan Smith, Aaron’s mother said he was “devastated” to received the diagnosis.

“It was pretty devastating for a 16-year-old to hear, because it was not something that we even remotely thought (possible),” she said.

“Aaron took it extremely hard.”

Ms Smith said test results indicated Aaron’s tongue cancer was aggressive, leading doctors to act fast.

“When we got the results back, it was aggressive, it was a T4 (tumour stage 4),” she said.

“It’s the most aggressive he could have had and it grew so rapidly in that six weeks it was probably around 3cm.”

Aaron said his recovery had been hard and really frustrating.

“There was a lot I couldn’t do and I wanted to feel normal again but I had my family and friends supporting me with visits and lots of messages of encouragement which helped me get better. My friends were messaging me every day which I needed,” Aaron said.

“After I’ve completed my radiation treatment I want to get back into school and graduate year 12 as well as do my certificate in plumbing through TAFE and enjoy time with my family and friends doing normal teenage stuff.”

Thomas Slaughter, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at the RBWH, removed almost half of Aaron’s tongue.

“A reconstructive surgeon took a piece of thigh skin to replace the removed portion of his tongue, removed lymph nodes from both sides of his neck,” Dr Slaughter said.

He said the type of cancer found in Aaron’s mouth was very rare among children.

“90 per cent of patients that have oral cavity cancer are 50 or older,” Dr Slaughter said.

“The main influencing factor for these cancers forming in the past has been smoking and drinking alcohol, and there’s a few other things, like alcohol in mouthwashes has been a factor.”

Aaron Whittington. Picture: Lachie Millard

Dr Slaughter said it is still unknown what caused Aaron’s cancer but genetic testing is being done to determine the cause of the growth and he will undergo six weeks of radiation therapy over the Christmas period.

He said doctors were worried about the increase of oral cancers, particularly in the under 40 age bracket.

“There is a predominance in male patients, generally for oral cavity cancer,” he said.

“But in the younger generation, in this cohort … there’s actually been an increase in females who are getting it, and statistically significant proportion of females,” Dr Slaughter said.

“We don’t know why that’s happening.”

Professor Carsten Palme, director of head and neck surgery at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, said early intervention is crucial to patient care.

“Any ulcer that’s not healing or white lesion in the tongue needs to be treated as serious and people should be taken to a head and neck surgeon,” Prof Palme said.

“The key success to care is early diagnosis. The problem with mouth cancer is the five year survival rate is around 50 per cent that includes patients with very advanced cancers.”