Oral and Oropharyngeal Cancers and Possible Risk Factors Across Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: A Systematic Review

Wedad Saeed Alqahtani; Nawaf Abdulrahman Almufareh; Halah A Al-Johani; Rasil Khaled Alotaibi; Consul Iworikumo Juliana; Nada Hamad Aljarba; Abdulqader Saeed Alqahtani; Bandary Almarshedy; Abdelbaset Mohamed Elasbali; Hussain Gadelkarim Ahmed; Bassam Ahmed Almutlaq

doi:10.14740/wjon1283

Oral and Oropharyngeal Cancers and Possible Risk Factors Across Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: A Systematic Review

World J Oncol. 2020 Aug;11(4):173-181. doi: 10.14740/wjon1283. Epub 2020 Aug 10.

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Biology, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Paediatric Dentistry and Preventive Dental Sciences, Riyadh Elm University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Taibah University, Madina, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ College of Dentistry, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State, Niger.
⁶ Department of Biology, College of Science. Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Royal Commission Hospital, Pharmacy Department, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Ministry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Jouf University, Qurayyat, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁰ College of Medicine, University of Hail, Saudi Arabia.
¹¹ Department of Histopathology and Cytology, FMLS, University of Khartoum, Sudan.

Abstract

Background: In recent years, there is an emerging increase in the prevalence of oral and oropharyngeal cancers (O-OPCs) across the Arabian Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Consequently, this review aimed to explore the epidemiology and possible risk factors of O-OPCs in GCC countries.

Methods: Data published after 2008 related to O-OPCs in GCC countries were obtained through electronic searches in Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE and Google Scholar. Keywords related to the association between O-OPCs metrics (epidemiology and risk factors) and GCC countries were used for electronic searches.

Results: The overall prevalence of OPCs increased significantly over time (40-51%) in some countries (Saudi Arabia and Arab Emigrated) of the Gulf regions. The pooled risk factor was 3.4 (2.5 - 4.7). Among the risk factors, human papillomavirus and the use of smoke and smokeless tobacco revealed odds ratio (OR) 3.31 (3.13 - 4.5) and 0.60 (0.45 - 0.80) at 95% confidence interval (CI).

Conclusion: A positive correlation between factors like age, diet, hygiene, genetics, viral and bacterial infection, consumption of alcohol and tobacco products with OPC-MFC is suggested.

Keywords: GCC countries; HPV; Oral cancer; Oropharyngeal cancer; Tobacco.