KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to explore if cocaine inhalation (smoking/snorting) escalates HNC risk, considering its widespread illegal recreational use.
- Cocaine inhalation showed a slight link to HNC risk, suggesting a potential carcinogenic effect, but larger studies are needed for confirmation.
Despite the global use of cocaine as an illicit recreational substance, its impact on head and neck cancer (HNC) risk remains poorly understood.
Mingyan Zhang and the team conducted a study that aimed to investigate if the global use of cocaine as an illicit recreational drug correlates with an elevated risk of HNC.
The study pooled data from three case-control studies involving 1639 cases and 2506 controls from the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium. Epidemiological information, including cocaine usage records, was collected through in-person interviews. Odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding 95% CIs were calculated using hierarchical logistic regression models.
The results demonstrated that after adjusting for cumulative tobacco and alcohol consumption, they observed a slight positive correlation between cocaine use and HNC (OR[ever vs. never] = 1.35, 95% CI: 0.96, 1.90). In subgroup analysis, although no associations were found among those who never used tobacco or alcohol due to the limited sample size, a connection between cocaine use and HNC was apparent among tobacco users and alcohol consumers.
Among tobacco users, ORs for ever and high cumulative use (>18 times) compared to never use were 1.40 (95% CI: 0.98, 2.00) and 1.66 (95% CI: 1.03, 2.69), respectively. Similarly, among alcohol drinkers, ORs for ever and high cumulative use (>18 times) compared to never use were 1.34 (95% CI: 0.93, 1.92) and 1.59 (95% CI: 1.00, 2.51), respectively.
The study concluded that a mild positive link exists between cocaine inhalation and HNC risk, offering initial evidence of cocaine’s potential carcinogenic impact on HNC. Due to study limitations, such as a restricted number of cocaine users, potential confounders, and variability across studies, future investigations will necessitate larger cohorts with comprehensive cocaine usage data.
This study received funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38400665/
Zhang M, Chen C, Li G, et al. (2024) ‘’Cocaine use and head and neck cancer risk: A pooled analysis in the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium.’’ Cancer Med. 2024 Feb;13(3):e7019. doi: 10.1002/cam4.7019.
