Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Mar;138(3):374-80.
doi: 10.1016/j.otohns.2007.12.002.

Cannabis use and cancer of the head and neck: case-control study

Sarah Aldington  1 , Matire Harwood, Brian Cox, Mark Weatherall, Lutz Beckert, Anna Hansell, Alison Pritchard, Geoffrey Robinson, Richard Beasley; Cannabis and Respiratory Disease Research Group
Collaborators, Affiliations

Cannabis use and cancer of the head and neck: case-control study

Sarah Aldington et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2008 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether cannabis smoking increases the risk of head and neck cancer.

Design: Case-control study.

Subjects and methods: Cases of head and neck cancer < or =55 years identified from hospital databases and the Cancer Registry, and controls randomly selected from the electoral roll completed interviewer-administered questionnaires. Logistic regression was used to estimate the relative risk of head and neck cancer.

Results: There were 75 cases and 319 controls. An increased risk of cancer was found with increasing tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and decreased income but not increasing cannabis use. The highest tertile of cannabis use (>8.3 joint years) was associated with a nonsignificant increased risk of cancer (relative risk = 1.6, 95% confidence interval, 0.5-5.2) after adjustment for confounding variables.

Conclusions: Cannabis use did not increase the risk of head and neck cancer; however, because of the limited power and duration of use studied, a small or longer-term effect cannot be excluded.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Tobias J. Current issues in cancer: cancers of the head and neck. BMJ. 1994;308:961–966. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vokes E.E., Weichselbaum R.R., Lippman S.M. Head and neck cancer. N Engl J Med. 1993;328:184–194. - PubMed
    1. Hoffman D., Brunnemann K. On the carcinogenicity of marijuana smoke. Rec Adv Phytochem. 1975;9:63–81.
    1. Rickert W., Robinson J., Rogers B. A comparison of tar, carbon monoxide and PH levels in smoke from marijuana and tobacco cigarettes. Can J Public Health. 1982;73:386–391. - PubMed
    1. Fligiel S., Venkat H., Gong H. Bronchial pathology in chronic marijuana smokers: a light and electron microscope study. J Psychoactive Drugs. 1988;20:33–42. - PubMed

Publication types