Association of rhinosinusitis with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A population-based study

Objectives/Hypothesis Although it is already known that the inflammation process elevates the risk of developing cancer, to date the association between rhinosinusitis and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the association between rhinosinusitis and NPC based on a nationwide database. Study Design Case-control study. Methods In total, the cases comprised of 2,242 subjects with NPC and 6,726 randomly selected subjects as controls. Separate conditional logistic regression analyses were used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) for having been previously diagnosed with chronic and acute rhinosinusitis between the cases and controls. Results Of the total sample, 607subjects (6.77%) had been diagnosed with chronic rhinosinusitis prior to the index date: 322 (14.36%) cases with NPC and 285 (4.24%) controls (P < .001). A conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that the OR of prior chronic rhinosinusitis for subjects with NPC is 3.83 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.23-4.53) as compared to controls after adjusting for the factors of income, urbanization, geographic location, tobacco use disorder, and alcohol abuse/dependence syndrome. Furthermore, 1,199 (53.48%) cases and 2,938 (42.19%) controls had been diagnosed with acute rhinosinusitis prior to the index date (P < .001).The adjusted OR of prior acute rhinosinusitis for subjects with NPC was 1.57 (95% CI, 1.43-1.73) that of controls. Conclusions This study detected an association between NPC and rhinosinusitis. We recommend that patients who are diagnosed with rhinosinusitis, either acute or chronic, seek out aggressive management to reduce the tissue burden and lower the risk of subsequently developing NPC. Level of Evidence 3b. Laryngoscope, 124:1515–1520, 2014