Effect of smoking Tobacco in the etiology of cancer of larynx in Khuzestan

Back ground: Laryngeal cancer though accounts for only 1.5% of all malignant neoplasm. Scientific evidence has shown that cancers of the oral cavity, larynx, lung and esophagus are associated with Cigar smoking. The present study is to examine by case-control method the impact of smoking on laryngeal cancer. One hundred and six hospitalized cases of otolaryngology department of Imam and Apadana Hospital of Ahvaz Jundishapur university diagnosed and pathologically confirmed laryngeal cancer in the period between March 1990 and March 2007 were selected for study. At the same time 176 controls of the otolaryngology department hospitalized in the same period for non-tumor diseases of the head and neck were selected. The questionnaire used in the present study contained items such as the social and demographic background of the subject, history of otolaryngology diseases, and lifestyle of the patients before hospitalization, smoking habit, and amount and duration of smoking. All data was analyzed by SPSS16. cases and controls were not significantly different in sex, marital status, race, educational level, religious belief and area of residency (P>0.05). Age, smoking experience, total year of smoking, way of smoking and the total amount of smoking were statistically associated with laryngeal cancer (P<0.05).A total of 148 patients from 176 patients were using tobacco compounds that about 50 cases above 20 cigarettes per day and the rest less than this number were consumed. The average duration of smoking 41.8 years. An interesting fact that of 25 female patients, 10 cases were used tobacco. Type of cigarette smoked in the 24 cases was handmade, 67 cases of cigarettes produced domestically and 57 foreign type was used. In the control group from 176 cases reviewed 18 smokers has been reported with average time of 4.8 years. Smoking is by far the strongest risk factor associated with the development of laryngeal cancer. Since it is fairly uncommon for a non-smoker to be diagnosed with laryngeal cancer, smoking cessation is the best way to prevent laryngeal cancer.