TY - JOUR TI - Low frequency of cigarette smoking and the risk of head and neck cancer in the INHANCE consortium pooled analysis AU - Berthiller, Julien AU - Straif, Kurt AU - Agudo, Antonio AU - Ahrens, AU - Wolfgang AU - dos Santos, Alexandre Bezerra AU - Boccia, Stefania and AU - Cadoni, Gabriella AU - Canova, Cristina AU - Castellsague, Xavier and AU - Chen, Chu AU - Conway, David AU - Curado, Maria Paula AU - Dal Maso, AU - Luigino AU - Daudt, Alexander W. AU - Fabianova, Eleonora AU - Fernandez, AU - Leticia AU - Franceschi, Silvia AU - Fukuyama, Erica E. AU - Hayes, Richard AU - B. AU - Healy, Claire AU - Herrero, Rolando AU - Holcatova, Ivana and AU - Kelsey, Karl AU - Kjaerheim, Kristina AU - Koifman, Sergio AU - Lagiou, AU - Pagona AU - La Vecchia, Carlo AU - Lazarus, Philip AU - Levi, Fabio and AU - Lissowska, Jolanta AU - Macfarlane, Tatiana AU - Mates, Dana AU - McClean, AU - Michael AU - Menezes, Ana AU - Merletti, Franco AU - Morgenstern, Hal and AU - Muscat, Joshua AU - Olshan, Andrew F. AU - Purdue, Mark AU - Ramroth, AU - Heribert AU - Rudnai, Peter AU - Schwartz, Stephen M. AU - Serraino, Diego AU - and Shangina, Oxana AU - Smith, Elaine AU - Sturgis, Erich M. and AU - Szeszenia-Dabrowska, Neonila AU - Thomson, Peter AU - Vaughan, Thomas L. AU - and Vilensky, Marta AU - Wei, Qingyi AU - Winn, Deborah M. and AU - Wunsch-Filho, Victor AU - Zhang, Zuo-Feng AU - Znaor, Ariana AU - Ferro, AU - Gilles AU - Brennan, Paul AU - Boffetta, Paolo AU - Hashibe, Mia AU - Lee, AU - Yuan-Chin Amy JO - International Journal of Epidemiology PY - 2016 VL - 45 TODO - 3 SP - 835-845 PB - Oxford University Press SN - 0300-5771, 1464-3685 TODO - 10.1093/ije/dyv146 TODO - Head and neck cancer; low frequency cigarette smoking; risk factors; pooled analysis TODO - Background: Cigarette smoking is a major risk factor for head and neck cancer (HNC). To our knowledge, low cigarette smoking (<10 cigarettes per day) has not been extensively investigated in fine categories or among never alcohol drinkers. Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis of individual participant data from 23 independent case-control studies including 19 660 HNC cases and 25 566 controls. After exclusion of subjects using other tobacco products including cigars, pipes, snuffed or chewed tobacco and straw cigarettes (tobacco product used in Brazil), as well as subjects smoking more than 10 cigarettes per day, 4093 HNC cases and 13 416 controls were included in the analysis. The lifetime average frequency of cigarette consumption was categorized as follows: never cigarette users, >0-3, >3-5, >5-10 cigarettes per day. Results: Smoking >0-3 cigarettes per day was associated with a 50% increased risk of HNC in the study population [ odds ratio (OR) = 1.52, 95% confidence interval (CI): (1.21, 1.90). Smoking >3-5 cigarettes per day was associated in each subgroup from OR = 2.01 (95% CI: 1.22, 3.31) among never alcohol drinkers to OR = 2.74 (95% CI: 2.01, 3.74) among women and in each cancer site, particularly laryngeal cancer (OR = 3.48, 95% CI: 2.40, 5.05). However, the observed increased risk of HNC for low smoking frequency was not found among smokers with smoking duration shorter than 20 years. Conclusion: Our results suggest a public health message that low frequency of cigarette consumption contributes to the development of HNC. However, smoking duration seems to play at least an equal or a stronger role in the development of HNC. ER -