Source: www.hemonctoday.com
Author: staff

Results of a study involving 473 participants showed that periodontitis was linked with the development of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

Researchers conducted a hospital-based case-control study between June 1999 and November 2005. The study involved 266 patients with head and neck cancer treated at the Roswell Park Cancer Center’s department of dentistry and maxillofacial prosthetics, and 207 healthy participants.

The researchers said that after adjusting for age at diagnosis, gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, smoking status, alcohol use and number of missing teeth, each millimeter of alveolar bone loss was associated with a more than fourfold increased risk of SCCHN (OR=4.36; 95% CI, 3.16-6.01). When researchers evaluated disease at specific head and neck sites, they found strength of the association was higher in the oral cavity (OR=4.52; 95% CI, 3.03-6.75) compared with the oropharynx (OR=3.64; 95% CI, 2.54-5.22) and larynx (OR=2.72; 95% CI, 1.78-4.16).

The researchers also said that there was a link between smoking and alveolar bone loss (P=.03), although the association between alveolar bone loss and SCCHN was weaker in current smokers (OR=2.85) compared with former smokers (OR=7.59) and never smokers (OR=5.96).

Alcohol use was not found to be a significant risk factor. The researchers said the association between alveolar bone loss and SCCHN was similar in drinkers and nondrinkers.

Source:
Tezal M. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009;doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-09-0334.