Epidemiology of sinonasal cancer in Denmark, 1943-1982

Long-term trends in the incidence of cancer of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses were studied on the basis of notifications of cancer cases in Denmark over 40 years. A total of 1436 cases of sinonasal cancer were reported in 1943-1982, giving steady annual incidences of 0.8 per 100,000 males and 0.5 per 100,000 females. These contrast with the simultaneous increases in risk for cancers of the middle and lower respiratory tract, and indicate that cigarette smoking does not play any significant role in the aetiology of sinonasal cancer. Since this tumour type has many occupational aetiologies, the stable time trends observed further indicate that all the major risk factors have been present in work places in a relatively unchanged form for more than half a century. A curious time-dependent distribution of cases according to subsite of the tumour, however, leaves open for possibility that some of the environmental carcinogens may have changed.