Laryngeal Cancer, Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylase Inducibility and Smoking

Abstract

In 58 cases with laryngeal cancer (10 supraglottic and 48 glottic), aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) inducibility and smoking habits were studied. All but 2 were smokers and most of them heavy tobacco consumers. The AHH levels were divided into high, intermediate and low groups and were compared to a large healthy control material also divided into the aforementioned groups. A highly significant overrepresentation of patients with a high AHH level (p < 0.0005) as well as a significant underrepresentation of low AHH levels (p < 0.025) were found. Smokers with a high AHH level run a fourfold risk of developing laryngeal cancer as compared to non-smokers with low AHH levels. They also develop cancer earlier in life and get recurrences and secondary malignancies more frequently. As in oral and oropharyngeal cancer a high AHH inducibility seems to be of pathogenetic as well as of prognostic importance even in laryngeal cancer.