Oral and oropharyngeal cancer in The Netherlands between 1989 and 2006: Increasing incidence, but not in young adults

SummaryTo determine incidence trends of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC), we analyzed site-specific data collected by The Netherlands Cancer Registry by 15 years-of-age categories from 1989–2006. The age-standardized annual incidence trends of all sites taken together showed a significant decrease of 0.6% for males and a significant increase of 1.8% for females. The trend for oropharyngeal carcinoma was most remarkable, with a significant increase of 2.5% and 3.0% per year for males and females, respectively. The incidence of oral carcinoma also significantly increased with a more pronounced effect for females than for males (2.0% vs. 0.5% per year). As for hypopharyngeal cancer, a significant annual increase for females (2.5%) and a stable situation for males was observed. Cancer of the larynx was the only site that showed a significant decline for males (2.4% per year), whereas it remained stable for females. In young (<45 years) adults incidences decreased for all sites with 0.1–4.7%. In conclusion, recent incidence trends of HNSCC in The Netherlands vary between sites with a considerable increase of oropharyngeal cancer as the most remarkable finding. The reason for the decreasing annual incidence rate at all sites observed for Dutch young adults remains to be explained.