WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A new research warned that daily use of cannabis might raise the risk of head and neck cancers by three times.
The research, using medical records of over 4 million U.S. adults for 20 years, was published in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.
'This is one of the first studies - and the largest that we know of to date - to associate head and neck cancer with cannabis use,' said senior study author Dr. Niels Kokot, a head and neck surgeon at the University of Southern California Head and Neck Center.
'The detection of this risk factor is important because head and neck cancer may be preventable once people know which behaviors increase their risk.'
Head and neck cancers include cancers in the mouth, throat, windpipe, and salivary glands, which affect over 58,000 U.S. adults every year, killing more than 12,000 of them, according to the American Cancer Society.
Researchers analyzed patient data from 64 U.S. health centers and found more than 116,000 diagnoses of cannabis use disorder among people with head and neck cancers. Their data was compared with those who had the similar cancers but were not diagnosed with cannabis use disorder.
'The cannabinoids themselves could be carcinogenic, and it could also be that the smoke itself has potential for carcinogenesis,' Kokot explained.
The findings disclosed that people with cannabis use disorder were 2.5 times more likely to get an oral cancer, about five times more likely to develop oropharyngeal cancer, which affects the soft palate, tonsils and back of the throat, and more than eight times more likely to get larynx cancer.
'While our study did not differentiate between methods of cannabis consumption, cannabis is most commonly consumed by smoking,' Kokot added. 'The association we found likely pertains mainly to smoked cannabis.'
Copyright(c) 2024 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2024 AFX News
