Approved Research

The Association of Oral Health Disparities with the Risk of Respiratory Tract and Head and Neck Cancers in the UK Biobank

Lay summary

The aim of our project is to evaluate the association between poor oral health, respiratory tract cancers, and head and neck cancer and if this association differs by sociodemographic and associated biomarkers. There have been very few studies that have evaluated the association between oral health, respiratory tract cancers, and head and neck cancer. However, none of these studies have evaluated the effect that clinical biomarkers mediate this association amongst racial and ethnic minority groups. This project is expected to take about 36 months. We believe that this project will have a great public health impact by identifying a biological factor to target to reduce the burden of respiratory tract cancers and head and neck cancer death.