Doctors are shining a light on tongue cancer.

It has a low death rate, but it often leaves people unable to swallow or even speak normally. But doctors now have a new treatment, and it's helping these patients get back to normal. 

The treatments can be brutal. Chemo, radiation and surgery take a toll on the body depending on where the cancer is.

As in all cancers, it's a difficult battle, and this cancer comes with its own challenges.

"People are suffering. They need to be cured, and they need to be cured with less toxicity now," UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Oncologist Jared Weiss said.

Standard treatment of tongue cancer involves surgery to remove the cancer, followed by chemo therapy and radiation.

"People with that amount of tongue that are missing, likely, will have trouble swallowing and could be G-tube dependent the rest of their life," Head and neck surgeon Wendell Yarborough said.

Doctors at UNC hospitals have completed two very successful trials. It's not yet standard treatment, but some patients choose to pursue this treatment outside a clinical trial.

For  Tre Bell, induction therapy decreased the size of his tumor from a tangerine to a marble.

"Preserving the amount of tissue we're able to preserve in him allowed him to speak, which I think is normally, and I think he's on a regular diet and lives a normal life," Yarborough said.

Most patients did not need radiation after treatment, not only curing them, but improving their quality of life after surgery.

Doctors hope a phase three clinical trial will help to change the standard of care for tongue cancers and also believe induction therapy will be used to treat other cancers as well.