Neck, head cancer high among alcohol, tobacco users: Expert

Cancer cases related to neck and head are high among people consuming alcohol and tobacco in any form like chewing, sniffing or smoking.

This was revealed by Dr. Jatin P. Shah, MD, FACS in an exclusive interview with Gulf Today on the sidelines of the 3-day Head and Neck Cancer Summit 2025 in collaboration with Emirates Rhinology and Otology Conference (EROC) at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC).

Dr Shah holds The Elliott W. Strong Chair in Head and Neck Oncology and chaired the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York, for 23 years. He is also a Professor of Surgery at Cornell University Medical College in New York.

“Unfortunately cancer doesn’t respect age. It occurs anytime from childhood to old age but generally happens to older people. Neck and head cancer cases are particularly high among people consuming alcohol and tobacco in any form like chewing, sniffing or smoking. When you combine the two — alcohol and tobacco — it fuels the fire. I understand alcohol is not popular in this part of the world but in Europe and US, alcohol is very common and so is smoking. Similarly in the East when you go to Indonesia, people chew tobacco while in India, mouth cancer cases are high due to the use of tobacco chewing. The UAE has a mixed population and a large number are expatriates from all over the world who bring their social habits here with them,” he said.

“Our mission is to save humankind from cancer all over the world and provide advanced treatment methods at clinics, at home and educate them. The UAE has specialised treatment facilities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi providing high quality care and also bringing specialists from any part of the world when they need. Our presence helps professionals in the UAE exchange knowledge, experiences and implement the latest innovations at the forefront of the cancer treatment around the world,” he said.

Related to modern cancer treatment, Dr Shah said that “the recent development of treating cancer patients with immunotherapy has changed the landscape in the past 10 years. Those patients who are treated through immunotherapy have been literally cured and cured for good. Unfortunately, today we cannot predict who will respond or not as only one-third of patients respond. Our challenge is to find tests or markers which can pick the patients who will respond to immunotherapy. The second challenge is reduce the toxicity of immunotherapy and make it tolerable financially – it is very expensive because these are new drugs – so the common man can afford it. We are hoping that soon in the near future we will be able to cure all types of cancers through immunotherapy,” he added.