How does tongue cancer develop?

Tobacco use.: This is likely due to tobacco use (including smokeless), and alcohol use. If use is great, cancer can come early, or present by about 50 years of age. There are all kinds of mutations that occur in cells due to this and these cause cancer cells to develop. Oral cancers like this can present as non-healing, painful ulcers. Whatever you do, don't use tobacco or smoke if you don't want this.

Not sure: We do not know how tongue cancer occurs for sure, however we do know that there are causative factors such as smokeless tobacco, smoking, and alcohol. However, you can develop this cancer without any of these cofactors.

Tobacco, alcohol: The majority of people who get tongue cancer have a strong history of tobacco use (either smoking or chewing) and/or alcohol use. The combination of the two increases the risk even more. The best thing you can do to reduce your risk is to eliminate tobacco use and moderate your alcohol consumption.