Laryngeal cancer, aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase inducibility and smoking. A follow-up study.

In 58 cases with laryngeal cancer (10 supraglottic and 48 glottic), aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) inducibility and smoking habits were studied. All but 2 were smokers and most of them heavy tobacco consumers. The AHH levels were divided into high, intermediate and low groups and were compared to a large healthy control material also divided into the aforementioned groups. A highly significant overrepresentation of patients with a high AHH level (p less than 0.0005) as well as a significant underrepresentation of low AHH levels (p less than 0.025) were found. Smokers with a high AHH level run a fourfold risk of developing laryngeal cancer as compared to non-smokers with low AHH levels. They also develop cancer earlier in life and get recurrences and secondary malignancies more frequently. As in oral and oropharyngeal cancer a high AHH inducibility seems to be of pathogenetic as well as of prognostic importance even in laryngeal cancer.