Diabetes mellitus and head and neck cancer - a Brazilian study

INTRODUCTION:  Head and neck cancer (HNC) includes tumors of the mouth, oropharynx, hypopharynx and larynx. The use of tobacco and alcohol are the main risk factors associated with HNC. Several studies have found that patients with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) have excess of risk and worse prognosis of some cancers such as liver, pancreas, colorectal, breast and others. Recently, it has been suggested the association of DM and HNC. However, few studies have been conducted on this topic. Objective. Evaluate the association of diabetes mellitus and head and neck cancer.

METHODS:  This case-control study was conducted at five clinical centers in the State of São Paulo in Brazil. The cases were individuals diagnosed with HNC, confirmed by histopathology. Controls can be hospital or visitors of patients, matched to the cases by frequency of sex, age and area of residence.  For the study 922 cases and 667 controls were evaluated. The logistic regression was used in statistical analysis

RESULTS:  

Most study subjects were male (78,4%). The average age was 54,3 years old (average=54,3; SD= 13,7). The crude analysis indicate no association between HNC and DM (OR= 0,89 and p-value= 0,475). When separated by sex, for men there was no association between HNC and MD (OR= 0,73 and p-value= 0,083), but for women there is a greater tendency of association between HNC and DM (OR= 1,88 and p-value= 0,071). After adjusting for sex, age, education, alcohol and tobacco, the analysis with all patients also found no association between HNC and DM (OR= 0,89 and p-value= 0,536). The analyzes separated by sex were adjusted for age, education, alcohol and tobacco and no association was found, neither for men (OR= 0,73 and p-value= 0,152), nor for woman (OR= 1,65 and p-value= 0,226).

CONCLUSIONS:  No association was detected between HNC and DM.