Is Tobacco Ban the Very First Step in Stopping Oral and Oropharyngeal Cancers? – A Retrospective Study

Background : This research article aims at identifying the addictive etiological factors that contribute to oral and oropharyngeal malignancies. With the uprising curve of various kinds of addictions among youth, the number of these cancers is only going to rise in near future. Tobacco and alcohol are the common risk factors and are synergistic in nature and are susceptible 15 times higher than the general population.(1) : Introduction Oral and oropharyngeal cancers belongs to the group of Head and Neck Cancer creating an economic burden of $386 million each year. Head and Neck cancers ranks sixth among the common oncological diseases worldwide. Smoking, tobacco chewing ,betel nut chewing and alcohol are the most commonly found addiction prole of these patients. Tobacco has also been described as gateway substance for alcohol consumption. Materials and methods : This is a retrospective type of study conducted over a period of 9 months with a sample size of 65. Site specic proven cases of malignancy were included in the study. Results: Tongue is the most affected site in oral cancer and base of tongue in oropharyngeal cancer. 5th decade , middle class male are most affected with smoking posing greatest risk in oropharyngeal cancer and tobacco chewing in oral cancer. Conclusion: A large proportion of population is still at risk of developing these cancers because they are getting driven towards these addictions without knowing the long term consequences that they are going to face. This study highlights how tobacco and tobacco containing products are fatal to life and an urgent ban is probably the only way to control this situation.