Habitual and Nutritional Factors for Oral Cancer Among Malaysians

Objective: To determine the relationship between smoking, alcohol consumption, quid chewing, dietary intake and development of oral cancer. Method: A case-control study was conducted among 145 respondents (86 oral cancer cases, 59 controls). Data on cancer patients were extracted from the Malaysian Oral Cancer Database and Tissue Resource Bank. Controls, matched for sex and age group were visiting patients in selected hospitals. Oral examination was conducted among controls to ensure non-existence of oral lesions. Data on sociodemographic background, practice of risk habits and dietary intake were collected. However, only 40 out of 86 cancer patients responded to our dietary questionnaire. Analysis was done using χ² test and Spearman correlation. Respondents were 55 (37.9%) males and 90 (62.1%) females with mean age of 58.3±12.4 years old. Majority of respondents with cancer are Indians (51.8%) followed by the Indigenous people of Sabah and Sarawak (20.0%). Odds ratio (OR) were calculated to determine the relationship of each factor and oral cancer occurrence. Results: Quid chewing habit was seen in 57.0% cases and 1.7% controls (OR 76.8, CI 10.2-580.4), alcohol consumption in 25.6% cases and 6.8% controls (OR 4.7, CI 1.5-14.6) and smoking in 36.1% cases and 13.0% controls (OR 3.6, CI 1.5-8.5). Among cases, 70% often take vegetables as compared to 83% among controls (OR 0.5, CI 0.2-1.3) and 45% often consume fruits among cases compared to 50.9% among controls (OR 0.8, CI 0.3-1.8). Only 7.5% cases often take fermented/salted food compared to 24.5% among controls (OR 0.3, CI 0.1-0.9), 35% cases and 71.7% controls often take non-home cooked food (OR 0.2, CI 0.1-0.5) and 5% cases often take frozen food compared to 26.4% among controls (OR 0.1, CI 0.03-0.7). Conclusion: The risk of developing oral cancer is highest among quid chewers, followed by alcohol drinkers and smokers. [IRPA grant 06-02-03-0174PR0054/05-05, MOSTI, Malaysia]