Snuff-induced malignancy of the nasal vestibule: a case report

The association between nasal snuff and malignancy is not well established. There is epidemiological evidence suggesting that oral tobacco when mixed with lime and betel leaves causes oral cancer in the Indian subcontinent. Similarly, snuff spiced with dried aloe has been reported to cause upper jaw malignancies in the Bantu tribes. The last reported case of nasal snuff causing cancer of the nose was described by John Hill in 1761. We describe here a case of a 69-year-old woman who developed a nasal vestibular malignancy after 30 years of snuff usage, and this, we believe, is the only reported case of nasal snuff causing cancer in the last 2 centuries.