Cigarette Smoking Significantly Elevates Neck and Head Cancer Risks, New Studies Found




According to the results of a large-scale study recently reported by the journal Cancer, past or present smoking is positively associated with an increased risk of contracting cancers of the head and neck. Both male and female smokers are more susceptible to developing malignant head and neck tumours, regardless of a particular anatomic region, in comparison with those who have never smoked.


The researchers investigated associations between smoking cigarettes and cancers of the larynx, pharynx, mouth, nose, and nasal passages, which strike annually about half a million people worldwide. Statistically, men are three times more prone to developing the above types of cancer, and twice as likely to die from head and neck malignancies, than are women.

While tobacco smoking has been linked to some types of head and neck cancers long ago, the new research has also revealed that cigarettes play a bigger role in triggering these diseases in women, in comparison with men.

The team of researchers, led by Dr. Neal Freedman of the National Cancer Institute, examined oncological data collected from almost 500,000 smoking and non-smoking people of both genders within a period of five years. The results showed that smoking is positively correlated with an elevated risk of developing malignant tumours on neck and head areas in both genders, but smoking women run a significantly greater risk of getting those cancers, in comparison with smoking men. In fact, while almost half of all head and neck cancer cases in men can be directly linked to cigarettes smoking, about ¾ of women with such tumours develop them entirely because of their smoking habit.

Another study, led by a group of French scientists of the Lyon’s International Agency for Cancer Research, found that cigarette smoking alone is responsible for a 24 percent increase in the incidence of head and neck malignancies, and especially cancer of the larynx. Alcohol consumption in smokers elevates the risks even more and is correlated with a 75 percent increase in neck and head cancer risks in both genders.

The lowest incidence of head and neck cancers is observed among people who never smoked tobacco-containing products, as well as those who never drank alcohol. The results of these reliable, large-scale studies should become yet another reason to kick unhealthy habits of smoking and drinking!

John Burke

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Posted on May 16, 2008 
Filed Under Facts on Smoking, Smoking and Health, Stop Smoking News, Tobacco Research

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