(021) Air Pollution Exposure's Effect on Head and Neck Cancer Incidence

Monday, October 2, 2023

2:45 PM – 3:45 PM East Coast USA Time

Has Audio

Presenting Author(s)

JP

John Peleman, MD

Resident
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Detroit, Michigan, United States

Co-Author(s)

JP

John Peleman, MD

Resident
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Detroit, Michigan, United States

Presenting Author(s)

Amanda E. Dilger, MD

Instructor, Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Mass Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA, United States

Co-Author(s)

Amanda E. Dilger, MD

Instructor, Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Mass Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA, United States

Presenting Author(s)

SL

Stella E. Lee, MD

Section Chief—Rhinology
Division of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Weston, MA, United States

Senior Author(s)

SL

Stella E. Lee, MD

Section Chief—Rhinology
Division of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Weston, MA, United States

Presenting Author(s)

John D. Cramer, MD

Associate Professor
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Detroit, Michigan, United States

Senior Author(s)

John D. Cramer, MD

Associate Professor
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Detroit, Michigan, United States

Presenting Author(s)

MR

Mengyuan Ruan, MS

Brigham and Women's Hospital
Brighton, MA, USA

Co-Author(s)

MR

Mengyuan Ruan, MS

Brigham and Women's Hospital
Brighton, MA, USA

Presenting Author(s)

TD

Tanujit Dey, PhD

Harvard Medical School, USA

Co-Author(s)

TD

Tanujit Dey, PhD

Harvard Medical School, USA

Presenting Author(s)

SC

Simon Chiang, Other

Harvard, USA

Co-Author(s)

SC

Simon Chiang, Other

Harvard, USA

Disclosure(s):

John Peleman, MD: No relevant relationships to disclose.

Amanda E. Dilger, MD: No relevant relationships to disclose.

Stella E. Lee, MD: No relevant relationships to disclose.

John D. Cramer, MD: No relevant relationships to disclose.

Introduction: Air pollution has been associated with a wide range of adverse health effects, including cardiovascular disease, chronic pulmonary conditions and lung cancer. Outdoor air pollution contains a variety of known and suspected carcinogens, of which particulate matter measuring two and a half microns or less (PM2.5) is the most well studied. Recent studies have shown a strong association between PM2.5 exposure and lung cancer incidence, however the association between air pollution and other aerodigestive tract malignancies is unknown. Here we assessed the association between PM2.5 and the incidence of head and neck aerodigestive tract cancer.

Methods: We compared the incidence of head and neck cancer in counties across the United States using the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database from 2002-2012. We assessed air pollution by the recorded mean level of PM2.5. The association between county mean PM2.5 and the county incidence of head and neck cancer was determined after controlling for demographic characteristics, alcohol use and smoking. We used a linear mixed model with federal information processing standards (FIPS) as a random effect to assess for association with varying lag times (0-20 years) between PM2.5 (both short and long-term) exposure and the incidence of head and neck cancer.

Results: There was a significant association between the incidence of head and neck cancer and PM2.5 with the highest correlation at the 5-year lag period ( = 0.25, p-value < 0.01). Associations were seen at no lag ( = 0.18, p-value < 0.01) up to a 20-year lag period ( = 0.16, p-value < 0.01).

Conclusions: PM2.5 exposure is associated with an increased incidence of head and neck cancer, with the strongest association at a 5-year lag period. Further subgroup analysis to assess for a non-linear effect of the exposure variable and a spline-based (generalized) additive modeling is needed to understand the relationships between exposure and cancer pathogenesis.