[Cancer of the oral cavity in machine workers]

So far, only few studies exist which investigated the influence of occupational factors on the risk of oral cancer.

A case control study enrolling 100 patients with carcinomas of the oral cavity and 400 randomized control persons was performed to analyze occupational risk factors for oral cancer.

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 the machine workers with oral cancer and only 17.3% of the machine workers in the control group were exposed to dust, especially metal dust (55.5% vs. 9.7%). Also the exposure to paint, lacquer, and varnish containing chromium and nickel was significantly higher in machine workers with cancer of the oral cavity than in the machine workers without cancer (29.6% vs. 10.9%).

The findings suggest that exposition to various types of dust, especially metal dust, increases the risk of oral cancer in machine worker patients.