Head & Neck Oncology Program

Laryngeal Cancer

Risk Factors

The American Cancer Society estimates that about 12,250 new cases of laryngeal cancer will be diagnosed in 2008. The primary risk factors for the disease are alcohol abuse and smoking.

A smoker has a 5-35 times greater risk than a nonsmoker of developing the disease, and a heavy drinker has a 2-5 times greater risk than a nondrinker of developing the disease. If a person is both a heavy drinker and a heavy smoker, the risk is even greater. Because these behavioral risk factors are more common among men than among women, men are more likely than women to develop hypopharyngeal cancer.

Other risk factors for the disease include the following:

Age: Laryngeal cancer is most common among people in their sixties and older.
Race: African Americans have a greater risk than whites.
Poor nutrition: Poor eating habits are often associated with alcohol abuse and may be the reason that the incidence of hypopharyngeal cancer is greater among heavy drinkers.
Human papillomavirus (HPV): If a woman has genital warts, in rare cases they may be spread to her baby’s larynx during birth. Children who have benign growths on their larynx have a slightly greater risk of developing laryngeal cancer later in life.
Weak immune system: People with weakened immune systems (for example, persons with AIDS and organ transplant patients) have a greater risk of developing head and neck cancers.

Most laryngeal cancer can be prevented by not smoking or abusing alcohol.

This page was last updated on: March 27, 2009.