[Occupational risk factors for pharyngeal cancer. Results of the Heidelberg Pharyngeal Cancer Study]

Abstract

We carried out a case-control study on the role of occupational factors on the risk of pharyngeal cancer. The study was performed at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery of the University of Heidelberg and comprised 105 male patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx and/or hypopharynx and 420 randomly selected control subjects who were matched for age, sex and residential area (1:4 matching design). The study showed that 34.3% of the cancer patients and 10.1% of the control subjects worked in the construction industry. As construction workers were 26.7% of the cancer patients and 7.1% of the control subjects employed, the relative risk of pharyngeal cancer in construction workers was estimated to be 2.5 (C.I. 1.1-5.5, adjusted for alcohol and tobacco consumption). After further adjustment for alcohol and tobacco consumption, an increased risk of pharyngeal cancer was found for workers exposed to cutting oils (RR = 3.7; C.I. 1.2-11.8), iron dust (RR = 2.7; C.I. 1.0-7.0) asbestos cement (RR = 2.5; C.I. 1.0-6.1), cement (RR = 2.2; C.I. 0.9-5.2) and coal/tar products (RR = 3.6; C.I. 0.8-17.3).