ArticlePloS one2025
Genetic, clinical, lifestyle and sociodemographic risk factors for head and neck cancer: A UK Biobank study.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Associations of combined lifestyle and genetic risk with incident head and neck cancer: a prospective study in the UK Biobank.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2026Article
- Correction: Genetic, clinical, lifestyle and sociodemographic risk factors for head and neck cancer: A UK Biobank study.PloS one · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionDespite a steady decline in tobacco smoking, head and neck cancer (HNC) incidence rates are on the rise. Therefore, novel risk factors for HNC are needed to identify at-risk patients at an early stage. Here, we used genetic, clinical, lifestyle, and sociodemographic data from UK Biobank (UKB) to evaluate the relative importance of known risk factors for HNC and identify novel predictors of HNC risk.
methodsAll participants in the UKB between 2006 and 2021 were stratified into HNC cases and controls at baseline (cases: n = 534; controls: n = 501833) or during follow-up (cases: n = 1587; controls: n = 500246). A cross-sectional description of risk factors (clinical characteristics, lifestyle and sociodemographic) for HNC at baseline was performed, followed by multivariate Cox regression analysis (adjusted for age and sex) and gradient boosting machine learning to determine the relative importance of predictors (phenotypic predictors and SNPs) of HNC development after baseline.
resultsIn addition to known risk factors for HNC (age, male sex, smoking and alcohol consumption habits, occupation), we show that smoking cessation at ≤ 40 years of age is the strongest predictor of HNC risk. Although SNPs may play a role in HNC development, a predictive model containing phenotypic variables and SNPs (C-index 0.75) did not significantly outperform a model containing the phenotypic predictors alone (C-index 0.73).
conclusionTaken together, this study demonstrates that phenotypic variables such as past tobacco smoking habits, occupation, facial pain, education, pulmonary function, and anthropometric measures can be used to predict HNC risk.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.