Occupational risk factors for the development of a carcinoma of the tessellated epithelium of the upper aero-digestive tract

Status:

completed 08/1995

Aims:

Increase in the number of malignant tumours of the aero-digestive tract; risk groups must be determined in order that specific screening and early diagnosis can be carried out. Goal: Determining and assessing risk factors for malignant tumours in the head-throat-area (nose, paranasal sinai, oral cavity, throat, larynx, salivary glands).

Activities/Methods:

Epidemiological examinations (case-control-studies) in several stages with 209 clinic patients with malignant tumours in the head-throat-area and 110 control persons; establishing the degree of exposure at the work place, social surroundings, dietry habits, smoking and drinking habits (survey with standardised questionnaire and separate interviews). Extended later to include examinations into genetic predisposition (HLA-standardisation, loss of tumour suppressor genes).

Results:

After alcohol/tobacco adjustment manual labourers were over-represented in the susceptibility to tumour group with 20.9% (7.3% in the control group); people exposed to asbestos (13.6% against 1.8%) and cement (24.8% against 2.7%) were likewise over-represented. The relative risk of carcinomas of the tessellated epithelium was 8.7 for asbestos, 12.9 for cement and 6.6 for PAH. A significant connection between diets and risk of carcinomas of the tessellated epithelium was confirmed. (Food types which protect against and which encourage tumours). Significant immunogenetic risk associations were found for HLA-B-18 and HLA-B-35 (positive; 6.3/2.5-fold-risk) as well as for HLA-DR-5 (negative; 0.38-fold risk)

Publications:

Maier, H.; Sennewald, E.: Risikofaktoren für Plattenepithelkarzinome im Kopf-Hals-Bereich - Ergebnisse der Heidelberger Fallkontrollstudien. Schriftenreihe des Hauptverbandes 1/1994

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