United States: A new study suggests that using marijuana every day for many years can make people three to five times more likely to develop head and neck cancers.
As reported by CNN, Dr. Niels Kokot, who led the study, says that those with a condition called cannabis use disorder are at a much higher risk compared to people who don’t use cannabis.
This condition includes symptoms like craving marijuana, using it in risky situations, and not being able to stop even when it causes problems.
Impact of Consumption Methods on Health
While our study did not differentiate between methods of cannabis consumption, cannabis is most consumed by smoking,” Kokot said in an email. “The association we found likely pertains mainly to smoked cannabis and this could be really very dangerous to health and it could lead to decrease in the immunity.
Survival Rates for Cancer Patients
Some of the 69 percent of the people with a diagnosis of oral or throat cancer will almost survive five years or even longer than their diagnosis, however, that rate drops to 14 percent and about almost 61 percent of the people who diagnosed with cancer of the larynx and will be alive five years and later-a rate that drops to 16 percent if the cancer spreads.
Study Details and Expert Opinions
The study used insurance data to look at the association of cannabis use disorder with head and neck cancers, said Dr. Joseph Califano, the Iris and Matthew Strauss Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Diego. He was not involved in the study.
“The researchers used a huge, huge dataset, which is really extraordinary, and there is enormous power in looking at numbers this large when we typically only see small studies,” said Califano, who is also the director of UC San Diego’s Hanna and Mark Gleiberman Head and Neck Cancer Center.
However, he added and the study does not find an association between “the occasional recreational use of marijuana and head and neck cancer.”
Causes of the head and neck cancers
In the United States head and the neck cancers make up four percent of all the cancers with more than almost 71,000 and the new cases and more than 16,000 deaths expected in the year 2024, according to the National Foundation for Cancer Research.
Tobacco use which already include smoking cigarettes and cigars, pipes and the smokeless tobacco and the use of alcohol are mainly two common causes of the head and neck cancers experts say.
Although the other risk factors might include poor oral hygiene and gastrophagel reflux disease or GRED a weakened immune system and a diet low in the fruits and vegetables and Occupational risk factors which include exposure to the asbestos and the wood dust.
