<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD JATS (Z39.96) Journal Publishing DTD v1.2d1 20170631//EN" "JATS-journalpublishing1.dtd">
<article xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" dtd-version="1.0" article-type="healthcare" lang="en"><front><journal-meta><journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">IJCRR</journal-id><journal-id journal-id-type="nlm-ta">I Journ Cur Res Re</journal-id><journal-title-group><journal-title>International Journal of Current Research and Review</journal-title><abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="pubmed">I Journ Cur Res Re</abbrev-journal-title></journal-title-group><issn pub-type="ppub">2231-2196</issn><issn pub-type="opub">0975-5241</issn><publisher><publisher-name>Radiance Research Academy</publisher-name></publisher></journal-meta><article-meta><article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">2470</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.7324/IJCRR.2018.10801</article-id><article-id pub-id-type="doi-url"/><article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading"><subject>Healthcare</subject></subj-group></article-categories><title-group><article-title>Study on Environmental Factors Causing Head and Neck Cancer in Karachi, Pakistan&#13;
</article-title></title-group><contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Aziz</surname><given-names>Arifa</given-names></name></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Rashid</surname><given-names>Yasmin Abdul</given-names></name></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Shaheen</surname><given-names>Zeenat</given-names></name></contrib><contrib contrib-type="author"><name><surname>Awan</surname><given-names>Safia</given-names></name></contrib></contrib-group><pub-date pub-type="ppub"><day>28</day><month>04</month><year>2018</year></pub-date><volume>)</volume><issue/><fpage>1</fpage><lpage>9</lpage><permissions><copyright-statement>This article is copyright of Popeye Publishing, 2009</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2009</copyright-year><license license-type="open-access" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><license-p>This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You may share and adapt the material, but must give appropriate credit to the source, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made.</license-p></license></permissions><abstract><p>Objective: Head and neck cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers in South East Asia and its incidence is increasing with time. The objective of this study is to identify the environmental factors and their role in causing head and neck cancers for better future strategy in controlling and prevention.&#13;
Materials and Methods: Questionnaire form was developed, which includes questions about environmental factors causing head and neck cancer. Forms were filled by patients after taking their written consent. This study was conducted at Day Care Oncology and in Radiation department of Aga Khan University Hospital, after approval from institutional ethical review committee. It is a prospective study conducted from December 2016 to June 2017. Patients with head and neck cancer aged 18 years and above, of both genders were included. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS version 19 was used to perform statistical analysis.&#13;
Results: A total of 132 patients were included. Head and neck cancers were observed to be more common in males 101 (76.5%) as compared to females 29 (22%) and average age was found to be 50.4 __ampersandsignplusmn; 12.9 years in both genders. The commonest environmental factors causing head and neck cancer included various forms of smokeless tobacco including pan, mainpuri, supari and gutka. 132 patients 77 (58.3%) were using smokeless tobacco, 41(31.1%) were cigarette smokers and 6 (4.5%) were using alcohol. Among all the head and neck cancers, the most common was squamous cell cancer of buccal mucosa 63 patients (47.72%) and less common is the cancer of orbit 4 patients (3%).&#13;
Conclusion: Incidence of head and neck cancer, specifically squamous cell carcinoma of buccal mucosa is increasing with time. The commonest cause was found to be different forms of smokeless tobacco easily accessible to the public. Increasing public awareness through various means is the way forward in controlling this menace.&#13;
</p></abstract><kwd-group><kwd>Smokeless tobacco</kwd><kwd> Buccal mucosa cancer</kwd><kwd> Public awareness Programs</kwd></kwd-group></article-meta></front></article>
