Patients diagnosed with cannabis use disorder were more than three times as likely to develop oral cancer within 5 years compared to those without the disorder, according to information from Preventive Medicine Reports.
The retrospective cohort study evaluated the association between cannabis use disorder (CUD) and 5-year incidence of oral cancer that analyzed electronic health record data from six academic medical centers across California.
Among all eligible patients, 949 developed CUD during the follow-up period. Oral cancer was diagnosed in 0.74% of patients with CUD compared with 0.23% of those without CUD. After adjusting for covariates, CUD remained significantly associated with increased oral cancer risk. Time-to-event analysis yielded comparable results, reinforcing the association over the 5-year observation period.
Patients with CUD were more likely to be male, younger, have a mean BMI of 23.2 vs 24.1 kg/m2, and more likely to smoke tobacco than those without CUD. In a subgroup analysis limited to tobacco smokers, the oral cancer rate was substantially higher among those with CUD than among smokers without CUD, even after controlling for demographic and clinical variables.
The study, conducted by Raphael E. Cuomo of the University of California School of Medicine, San Diego, California, included 45,129 adults who completed drug use disorder screening between January 2012 and December 2019 and had no prior diagnosis of oral cancer. Patients were followed for 5 years from their screening date to identify new cases of malignant neoplasms of the lip or tongue.
CUD was defined as a new clinical diagnosis documented using ICD codes during the follow-up period. The study applied logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models to assess the association between CUD and oral cancer while adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, and smoking status.
The researchers concluded that CUD was independently associated with a more than threefold increase in oral cancer risk over a 5-year period. These findings support the need for increased clinical vigilance, including potential screening interventions for patients with CUD. The study highlights the importance of considering cannabis-related health risks, particularly in the context of increasing cannabis legalization and reduced risk perception.
The author reported no conflict of interest.
Source: Preventive Medicine Reports
