ORAL-CANCER IN MACHINE WORKER

Background: So far, only few studies exist which investigated the infl uence of occupational factors on the risk of oral cancer. Patients: A case control study enrolling 100 patients with carcinomas of the oral cavity and 400 randomized control persons was performed to analyze occ upational risk factors for oral cancer. Results: Twenty-two percent of the tumor patients and only 8.5% of the control persons were employed as machine workers. The relative risk for squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity was 3.4 (K.I.: 1.7-7.0) for machine workers (adjusted for alcohol and tobacco). Single case analysis showed that 96.3% of th e machine workers with oral cancer and only 17.3% of the machine worke rs in the control group were exposed to dust, especially metal dust (5 5.5% vs. 9.7%). Also the exposure to paint, lacquer, and varnish conta ining chromium and nickel was significantly higher in machine workers with cancer of the oral cavity than in the machine workers without can cer (29.6% vs. 10.9%). Conclusions: The findings suggest that expositi on to various types of dust, especially metal dust, increases the risk of oral cancer in machine worker patients.