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Marijuana smoking and carcinoma of the tongue. Is there an association?
Author(s) -
Caplan Gideon A.,
Brigham Brian A.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19900901)66:5<1005::aid-cncr2820660535>3.0.co;2-h
Subject(s) - medicine , lung cancer , tongue , cancer , confounding , marijuana smoking , tobacco smoke , basal cell , carcinogenesis , tongue neoplasm , pathology , oncology , environmental health , substance abuse , psychiatry , polysubstance dependence
There is considerable theoretical evidence that marijuana should be carcinogenic. However, most reviews have found no direct evidence of chronic marijuana smoking causing lung cancer. Some recent reports implicate marijuana smoking as a cause of cancer of the upper aerodigestive tract, though most of the subjects were exposed to other, possibly confounding, etiologic factors, namely tobacco and alcohol. We report two cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue in men who chronically smoked marijuana but had no other risk factors. The totality of cases may point to a predilection of marijuana smoke for carcinogenesis in the upper aerodigestive tract. This correlates with nonmalignant effects and may be related to a different method of smoking marijuana compared with tobacco.