Nazish Fatima, Sidra Mohiuddin, Salim Hosein, Mervyn Hosein.
Association of Carcinogenic Oral Habits with Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.
J Pak Dent Assoc Jan ;30(1):29-33.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the association among betel nut, betel quid or smoking alone, and betel quid combined with smoking in subjects reporting with oral sub mucous fibrosis, oral submucous fibrosis with malignant transformation in to cancer and oral squamous cell carcinoma. METHODOLOGY: An analytical cross sectional, multi centric study of n = 1009 cases collected through non-probability convenience sampling. These n=1009 subjects were subdivided into four groups: group 1, who consumed areca nut only; group 2, who chewed betel quid along with areca nut; group 3, who used betel quid and smoked; and group 4, who had no chewing habits history but were smokers. These changes were further confirmed with the help of biopsy reports of the subjects with OSMFCa and OSCC. Chi square test was performed to find out association of chewing habits with the progression of disease state. Level of significance was kept at p<0.05. RESULTS: The mean age of the sample (n=1009) were 42.79 +- 1.31 years (range: 10-70 years). Statistically significant difference was (p<0.00) found among all four groups in terms of initiation, propagation and progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Furthermore, statistically insignificant difference (p=0.40) was found between group 2 and group 3 as similar number of cases (OSCC) was seen among them. CONCLUSION: Current study concluded that patients who have combined habits of chewing betel quid with areca nut and betel quid with smoking were at highest risk of initiation and progression of oral cancer. However, smoking cigarettes alone was the weakest risk factor.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com