2017 Volume 68 Issue 5 Pages 327-333
Laryngeal cancer is one of various smoking-related cancers. It has long been assumed that antismoking campaigns are effective for primary prevention, because the ratio of non-smoker patients with laryngeal cancer is extremely low, at only 2.7 percent. In Japan, the percentage of male smokers was over 80 percent in the 1960s, but as of 2016 it has fallen to 29.7 percent. The ratio of female smokers has also fallen within the same time frame, from 18 percent to 9.7 percent. The age-standardized incidence rate of laryngeal cancer was 2.8 per 100,000 in the 1960s, higher than the aggregated rate of oral cancer and pharyngeal cancer, but the rate has subsequently declined to 2.1. By contrast, the rates of oral cancer, oropharyngeal cancer and hypopharyngeal cancer have risen from 1.2, 0.1, and 0.2 respectively to 3.8, 1.7, and 1.6. It is only laryngeal cancer that has been directly influenced by the declines in the smoking rates. To achieve success in primary prevention of laryngeal cancer, it is important that antismoking campaigns are continued aggressively.
