Background: Recent advances have attributed carcinogenic potential to pharmacotherapy. Cancers of the head and neck region are no exception.
Objectives: This descriptive investigation aimed to identify studies reporting on drugs that have contributed to cancer development in the head and neck region.
Material and methods: Online databases were searched for relevant articles and their data were summarized, including age, gender, main drug classification and name, additional drugs, primary disorders, drug-related cancers, and the site of each drug-related cancer.
Results: The mean age of the patients included in this analysis was 52.9 years. However, drug-related head and neck cancers (DR HNCs) were most prevalent in persons over 60 years of age. Overall, these cancers were more prevalent in females than in males (1.33/1). The HNC-related drugs could mainly be categorized into 3 groups, namely, immunomodulatory/immunosuppressive, chemotherapeutic and chemoprotective drugs, while the most frequently used additional drugs across the studies were corticosteroids. The 5 most prevalent primary conditions for which the patients had received pharmacotherapy were organ transplantations, lymphoproliferative disorders (LPD), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, and bone sarcoma. The most prevalent HNCs were squamous cell carcinoma (SCCs), thyroid cancers (including papillary and follicular thyroid carcinomas), LPD, and mucoepidermoid/acinic cell carcinomas, which occurred mostly in the oral cavity, neck, salivary glands, pharynx/larynx, and head/face.
Conclusions: This study was the first of its kind to analyze and discuss the aforementioned findings regarding the head and neck region in depth. Clinicians should familiarize themselves with DR HNC cases to effectively screen suspected patients.
Keywords: carcinogenesis; drugs; head and neck cancer; malignancy; pharmacotherapy.