Article Text
Abstract
Objectives Head and neck cancers (HNCs) may be among the health consequences of involvement in the World Trade Center (WTC) response on and after 11 September 2001. We conducted a nested case–control study of WTC Health Program (WTCHP) general responders to examine the effects of WTC exposures and behavioural risk factors on HNC.
Methods We enrolled 64 cases and 136 controls, matched on age, sex and race/ethnicity within risk sets. We assessed tobacco and alcohol use, sexual activity, and occupational exposures prior to, during and after WTC exposure until case diagnosis via questionnaire. We obtained WTC exposure information (duration (first to last day), total days and location of work) from the WTCHP General Responder Data Center. We assessed associations with HNC, and interaction among exposures, using conditional logistic regression.
Results Responders in protective services versus other occupations had increased odds (OR: 2.51, 95% CI 1.09 to 5.82) of HNC. Among those in non-protective services occupations, arriving to the WTC effort on versus after 11 September 2001 was significantly associated with HNC (OR: 3.77, 95% CI 1.00 to 14.11). Duration of work was not significantly associated with HNC. Lifetime and post-WTC years of cigarette smoking and post-WTC number of sex partners were positively and significantly associated with HNC, while alcohol consumption was not.
Conclusions These findings suggest opportunities for HNC risk factor mitigation (eg, smoking cessation, human papillomavirus vaccination) and contribute to a risk factor profile which may assist WTCHP clinicians with identifying high-risk responders and improve detection and treatment outcomes in this population.
- World Trade Center
- head and neck cancer
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Footnotes
Contributors MTBM, KB, ARG, IGU and JMG contributed to conception and design of the study. MTBM led the questionnaire development in collaboration with KB, TMB, IGU, MBS, ARG, MRP and JMG. TMB organised the study database. MTBM performed the statistical analysis and wrote the first draft of the manuscript with guidance from JMG, POS, MRP and ARG. IGU, BJL, DH, MC and JM led the GRC data collection and contributed to manuscript writing. CRD, RGL and ACT maintained and provided GRC data and contributed to manuscript writing. All authors contributed to manuscript revisions and approved the submitted version.
Funding This work was supported by Grant or Cooperative Agreement Number 1U01OH011322-01 funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval This research obtained ethics approval from the Institutional Review Board at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Participants gave informed consent before taking part in this study.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement Certain data are available upon reasonable request, but some data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available.