Household inhalants exposure and nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk: a large-scale case-control study in Guangdong, China

Abstract

BackgroundEpidemiological studies show that cigarette smoking increase the risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), however, whether other common, potentially adverse household inhalants increase NPC risk remains uncertain.MethodsWe conducted a large case-control study to explore the effects of household inhalants, such as incense, mosquito coil, cooking fumes, and wood combustion, on NPC risk. We recruited 1,845 cases and 2,275 controls from Guangdong province, a high-risk area for NPC in China, to obtain the demographic data and relevant exposure information through face-to-face interviews.ResultsWe found that incense burning was associated with NPC risk by comparing frequent incense use with never using incense [OR and 95 % confidence interval (CI) = 1.73, (1.43, 2.09)]. Wood fuel use was also associated with NPC risk compared with non-wood fire use [OR and 95 % CI = 1.95, (1.65, 2.31)]. More intriguingly, we observed a significant addictive interaction between frequent incense burning and heavy cigarette smoking on NPC risk [synergistic index (SI) = 1.67; 95 % CI: 1.01, 2.76]. We also found a significant joint effect between wood fuel use and NPC family history for NPC risk (SI = 1.77; 95 % CI: 1.06, 2.96). However, neither mosquito oil nor cooking fumes were associated with NPC risk.ConclusionsOur study shows that incense smoke is not only the potential independent risk factor but also co-contributes with cigarette smoking to NPC risk. Moreover, wood combustion is another potential environmental risk factor and exerts a joint effect with NPC family history on NPC.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-015-2035-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Association of Ambient Air Pollution with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Incidence in Ten Large Chinese Cities, 2006–2013

“…The harmful effect of indoor air pollution can support our finding from another perspective: An increased NPC risk has been found associated with daily incense burning (Adjusted OR = 2.49, 95% CI: 1.33-4.66) in women, and the adjusted OR for daily burning with good ventilation (1.35, 95% CI: 0.92-1.98) is much lower than that with poor ventilation (2.08, 95% CI: 1.02-4.24) [45]. Moreover, compared with non-users, frequent wood fuel use is also associated with NPC risk (OR 1.95, 95% CI, 1.65-2.31) [46]. Because only few previous studies examine the relationship between ambient air pollution and NPC, this empirical study enriches the relevant literature and demonstrates new mechanisms underlying NPC pathogenesis [14].…”

Implication of hsa_circ_0028007 in reinforcing migration, invasion, and chemo‐tolerance of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

“…Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), owing to dysfunction of nasopharyngeal epithelium cells (NPECs), was a prevalent head and neck malignancy in China, and its incidence (ie, around 0.7‰) reached a peak in Guangdong district. 1,2 Virtually, a majority of NPC patients have exacerbated to the advanced stage when they sought medical attentions, since that early-stage NPC usually occurred in hidden spaces (eg, recess and top wall of pharyngeal) that were hard to perceive. 3 Although chemoradiotherapy has benefited vast numbers of NPC patients, 4,5 drug tolerance that arose during the treatment impeded noticeable improvement of NPC prognosis.…”

Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) Risk Factors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Association with Lifestyle, Diets, Socioeconomic and Sociodemographic in Asian Region

“…Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is more common in Asian than in non-Asian countries. In 2012, 86,691 cases (60,896 in males and 25,795 in females) of NPC and 50,831 NPC-related deaths (35,753 in males and as consumption of preserved foods with NPC risk (Polesel et al, 2013;Lakhanpal et al, 2014;Ekpanyaskul et al, 2015;He et al, 2015;Lourembam et al, 2015;Xie et al, 2015;Ren et al, 2017;Yong et al, 2017). However, results across various studies have not been entirely consistent.…”