Epidemiology
Cancer of the mucosal surfaces of the upper aero-digestive tract is much less common than lung, breast, colorectal or prostatic cancer, but still an important cause of morbidity and death worldwide. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) accounts for approximately 2600 cancer deaths in the UK annually. It is mainly a disease of men and is more common in the middle aged and elderly. Life style factors are especially important in the aetiology of this type of cancer. Tobacco and excessive alcohol consumption are the two main predisposing factors, each increasing the risk of development of head and neck cancer. However, in patients who both smoke and drink, the risk of getting cancer is more than the sum of the individual risks of each pre-disposing factor (i.e. the risk is multiplicative rather than additive). There is an increasing trend of development of oropharyngeal tumours in a much younger cohort of patients. This is thought to be related to human papilloma virus incidence. Other risk factors include smokeless tobacco (betel nut chewing or snuff) and poor diet.
Histology
Histologically, the predominant type of head and neck cancer is SCC.
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