History of Diabetes and Risk of Head and Neck Cancer: A Pooled Analysis from the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium

Citation

Stott-Miller, Marni; Chen, Chu; Chuang, Shu-Chun; Lee, Yuan-Chin Amy; Boccia, Stefania; Brenner, Hermann; Cadoni, Gabriella; Dal Maso, Luigino; La Vecchia, Carlo; & Lazarus, Philip, et al. (2012). History of Diabetes and Risk of Head and Neck Cancer: A Pooled Analysis from the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 21(2), 294-304. PMCID: PMC3275674

Abstract

Background: A history of diabetes is associated with an increased risk of several types of cancers. Whether diabetes is a risk factor for head and neck cancer (HNC) has received little attention. Methods: We pooled data from 12 case-control studies including 6,448 cases and 13,747 controls, and estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the associations between diabetes and HNC, adjusted for age, education level, sex, race/ethnicity, study center, cigarette smoking, alcohol use and body mass index (BMI). Results: We observed a weak association between diabetes and the incidence of HNC overall (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.95-1.24). However, we observed a modest association among never smokers (OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.22-2.07), and no association among ever smokers (OR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.83-1.11); likelihood ratio test for interaction p=0.001. Conclusions: A history of diabetes was weakly associated with HNC overall, but we observed evidence of effect modification by smoking status, with a positive association among those who never smoked cigarettes. Impact: This study suggests that glucose metabolism abnormalities may be a HNC risk factor in subgroups of the population. Prospective studies incorporating biomarkers are needed to improve our understanding of the relationship between diabetes and HNC risk, possibly providing new strategies in the prevention of HNC.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.epi-11-0590

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2012

Journal Title

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention

Author(s)

Stott-Miller, Marni
Chen, Chu
Chuang, Shu-Chun
Lee, Yuan-Chin Amy
Boccia, Stefania
Brenner, Hermann
Cadoni, Gabriella
Dal Maso, Luigino
La Vecchia, Carlo
Lazarus, Philip
Levi, Fabio
Matsuo, Keitaro
Morgenstern, Hal
Muller, Heiko
Muscat, Joshua E.
Olshan, Andrew F.
Purdue, Mark P.
Serraino, Diego
Vaughan, Thomas L.
Zhang, Zuo-Feng
Boffetta, Paolo
Hashibe, Mia
Schwartz, Stephen M.

PMCID

PMC3275674

ORCiD

Olshan - 0000-0001-9115-5128