Survival from cancer of the larynx in England and Wales up to 2001

Cancer of the larynx is one of the more common malignancies in England and Wales (ranking 20th in both sexes combined). Approximately 1800 new cases are diagnosed each year, 80% of them in men. Incidence rates are approximately 6.2 and 1.3 per 100 000 per year in men and women, respectively. Incidence has fallen by approximately 5% in men over the last decade, but little change has occurred in women. Laryngeal cancer is rare under the age of 40, but the risk rises rapidly with age. There is a marked socioeconomic gradient, with risk twice as high in the most deprived groups as in the most affluent groups ( Quinn et al, 2001 ). Geographic variation in risk is also wide, with incidence less than 70% of the United Kingdom and Ireland average in southwest England and parts of the southeast, but 50% or more above the average in much of Scotland and in the main urban areas of northwest and northeast England. The combined effect is a striking regional disparity in the socioeconomic profile of the disease. In the Oxford region, for example, 50% of cases occur in affluent groups, although in the West Midlands and the northwest, that proportion is approximately 20%, with 65% of cases among the most deprived (data not shown). The annual death rate of laryngeal cancer in England and Wales is approximately 2.3 per 100 000 in men (570 deaths a year) and 0.6 in women (150 deaths a year).