Abstract
The association of tonsillectomy, a common surgical procedure involving the removal of a majority of the palatine tonsillar tissue, with risk of tonsil cancer specifically or oropharyngeal cancers overall is not known. In this issue of Cancer Prevention Research, Fakhry and colleagues conduct an analysis within the Danish Cancer Registry and show that tonsillectomies were associated with significantly reduced risk of tonsil cancer, but were unrelated to risk of base of tongue cancers. This editorial discusses the implications of the results by Fakhry and colleagues for key prevailing questions in the field related to risk, rising incidence, secondary prevention, and treatment of oropharyngeal cancers. Cancer Prev Res; 8(7); 577–9. ©2015 AACR.
See related article by Fakhry et al., p. 583
- Received April 1, 2015.
- Accepted April 2, 2015.
- ©2015 American Association for Cancer Research.
Volume 8, Issue 7
Jump to section
- Article
- Abstract
- Do tonsillectomies reduce risk of HPV-positive cancers, HPV-negative cancers, or both?
- Is the effect of tonsillectomy on oropharyngeal cancer risk differential by age?
- Does a decline in tonsillectomies explain the rise in tonsil cancer incidence in recent years?
- What are the implications for secondary prevention through prophylactic tonsillectomies?
- What are the implications for treatment of oropharyngeal cancers?
- Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest
- References
- Info & Metrics