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
. 2023 Jan;45(1):75-84.
doi: 10.1002/hed.27209. Epub 2022 Oct 6.

Disparities in head and neck cancer incidence and trends by race/ethnicity and sex

Angela L Mazul  1   2 , Smrithi Chidambaram  1   3 , Jose P Zevallos  1 , Sean T Massa  3
Affiliations

Disparities in head and neck cancer incidence and trends by race/ethnicity and sex

Angela L Mazul et al. Head Neck. 2023 Jan.

Abstract

Background: The epidemiology of head and neck cancer (HNC) sites differ substantially. This study compares HNC incidence trends by site and demographic subgroups.

Methods: We used the U.S. Cancer Statistics Public Use Database to calculate HNC incidence rates per 100 000. We assessed trends with annual percent change (APC) longitudinally from 2001 to 2017.

Results: The oropharyngeal cancer incidence APC decreased from 4.38% (95% CI: 3.6, 5.1) to 2.93% (2.5, 3.3) in 2008 among White males. Oral cavity cancer incidence rose in Other race males (APC 2.5% [1.6, 3.36]) and White females (APC: 0.96% [0.7, 1.2]). Although decreasing (APC: -1.15% [-1.48, -0.83]), laryngeal cancer incidence remained disproportionately high among Black males.

Conclusions: Notable incidence trends occurred in non-White groups at non-oropharyngeal sites. With parity of smoking rates by race, differing sexual behaviors, and shifting demographics by race and sex, future studies of HNC trends should consider stratifying analyses to understand health disparities.

Keywords: demographic disparities; epidemiology; head and neck cancer; incidence; otolaryngology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Financial Disclosures: Dr. Zevallos is the founder and chair of the board of Droplet Biosciences (Cambridge, MA) and a consultant for Merck. The other authors have no conflicts to report.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Head and Neck Incidence (per 100,000) by Site, Race, and Sex: 2001–2017
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Absolute Head and Neck Cancer Case Counts by Site, Race, and Sex: 2001–2017
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Average Annual Percent Changes in Head and Neck Cancer Incidence by Site, Race, and Sex: 2001–2017
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Chow LQM. Head and Neck Cancer. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(1):60–72. - PubMed
    1. Chang ET, Adami HO. The enigmatic epidemiology of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006;15(10):1765–1777. - PubMed
    1. Altieri A, Bosetti C, Gallus S, et al. Wine, beer and spirits and risk of oral and pharyngeal cancer: a case-control study from Italy and Switzerland. Oral Oncol. 2004;40(9):904–909. - PubMed
    1. Lubin JH, Muscat J, Gaudet MM, et al. An examination of male and female odds ratios by BMI, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption for cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, and larynx in pooled data from 15 case-control studies. Cancer Causes Control. 2011;22(9):1217–1231. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zandberg DP, Liu S, Goloubeva OG, Schumaker LM, Cullen KJ. Emergence of HPV16-positive oropharyngeal cancer in Black patients over time: University of Maryland 1992–2007. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2015;8(1):12–19. - PMC - PubMed