Alcohol blamed for 26% increase in oral cancer

(BBC News) Alcohol is largely to blame for an “alarming” rise in the rate of oral cancers among men and women in their forties, say experts.

Numbers of cancers of the lip, mouth, tongue and throat in this age group have risen by 26% in the past decade.

Alcohol consumption has doubled since the 1950s and is the most likely culprit alongside smoking, says Cancer Research UK.

Each year in the UK around 1,800 people die from the disease.

There are 5,000 newly diagnosed cases per year.

The charity’s health information manager Hazel Nunn said: “These latest figures are really alarming.

“Around three-quarters of oral cancers are thought to be caused by smoking and drinking alcohol.

“Tobacco is, by far, the main risk factor for oral cancer, so it’s important that we keep encouraging people to give up and think about new ways to stop people taking it up in the first place.”

But you know what doesn’t lead to an increase in oral cancer?  Wait for it…

Seattle, WA: The use of marijuana, even long term, is not associated with an increased risk of developing oral cancer, according to the results of a large, population-based study published in the June issue of the journal Cancer Research.

Researchers found “no association” between marijuana use and the incidence of oral squamous-cell carcinoma, “regardless of how long, how much or how often a person has used marijuana,” according to a press release issued this week by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, which conducted the study.