Head and neck cancers are on the rise. Here’s how to reduce your risk.

Here are the factors driving that increase and what can you do to minimize your risk.

Author of the article:

Washington Post

Mikkael Sekeres, MD

Published May 24, 2026  •  Last updated 5 minutes ago  •  5 minute read

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What causes head and neck cancers and why are they increasing? Is there anything I can do to lower my chances of getting one?

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Cancers of the head and neck include malignancies affecting the mouth and throat (called the oral cavity and pharynx), the voice box (larynx), the sinuses and nasal cavities, and the salivary glands.

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Oral cavity and pharynx cancers are the most common head and neck cancers, and their rates have been rising. In 2023, the latest year for which data is available, there were 11.6 cases diagnosed per 100,000 people in the United States, up from 10 per 100,000 in 2007. That represents an increase of about 1 percent per year.

This translates to about 60,000 new diagnoses per year in the U.S., with about 1.2 percent of people nationally diagnosed with one of these cancers in their lifetime. Globally, the incidence is expected to increase 30 percent by the year 2030.

Here are the factors driving that increase and what can you do to minimize your risk.

Men develop oral cavity and pharynx cancers at 2½ times the rate that women do, probably as a result of engaging more often in behaviours that can lead to these cancers.

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Traditionally, one of the most common risk factors is tobacco use: Smoking, secondhand smoke and smokeless tobacco have all been linked to these cancers. Heavy alcohol use is another big one: For example, a person who drinks four alcoholic beverages daily for 20 years will have three times the odds of developing cancer of the oral cavity or pharynx of someone who doesn’t consume alcohol. Using both tobacco and alcohol is associated with an even greater cancer risk than using one substance alone, with one study even estimating a 40-fold increased cancer risk with heavy use.

Factors contributing to head and neck cancer can vary worldwide. For example, in South and Southeast Asia and Polynesia, chewing of the areca nut, also known as betel quid, accounts for over half of oral and oropharyngeal head and neck cases.

According to the American Lung Association, in the U.S., use of tobacco products among adults aged 26 or older has fallen 22 percent from 2002 to 2022. And a 2025 Gallup poll found that the percentage of Americans reporting use of alcohol was at its lowest point in the poll’s nearly 90-year history.

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If smoking and alcohol use have decreased in the U.S., why then are rates of head and neck cancer increasing? It turns out, the answer involves an infection.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) – the same sexually transmitted virus that can infect the genital area and lead to cervical cancer – is now the greatest risk factor for head and neck cancer, accounting for about 30 percent of oropharyngeal cancers worldwide. It is believed to be responsible for the recent rise in head and neck cancer cases.

People with HPV-related oral cavity and pharynx cancers tend to be younger when they are diagnosed and do not have a heavy smoking history, but do have a higher number of lifetime sexual partners and report an earlier age of first sexual contact.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the high-risk subtypes of HPV most commonly associated with head and neck cancers are detectable in the mouths of 4 percent of adults aged 18 to 69. Yet, unlike for women undergoing Pap smears and HPV testing to screen for cervical cancer, there are no similar screening approaches for oral cavity and pharynx cancers, other than having a doctor or dentist inspect your mouth for abnormal growths.

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The best way to prevent the most common types of HPV is through vaccination, with two doses of the vaccine recommended for children at age 11 or 12, or starting as early as 9 years and up to age 26 for those who missed it as a child. As I have written before, while it was a bit uncomfortable for me to think of my three children as future sexual beings at those ages, I nonetheless took all of them to be vaccinated, knowing it would lower their chances of HPV-related cancers as adults.

The vaccine is approved for use up to age 45, though typically is not given after age 26 because it is less beneficial after a person has already been exposed to HPV; your doctor can help you decide if you are at risk of infection and should get it as an adult.

The good news is that the rates of head and neck cancer are expected to decline eventually as a result of HPV vaccination programs.

Preliminary findings from one U.S.-based study of over 1.7 million people found that men who received the HPV vaccination from 2010 through 2023 had a 56 percent reduction in rates of head and neck cancers, while the benefit in women was more modest, at 33 percent.

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A second global study reported a five-fold reduction in cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx, while another analysis found that HPV vaccination led to a 46 percent reduction in high-risk HPV infections in the mouth. Increasingly, the data are showing that HPV vaccination works to prevent these cancers, along with its known reductions in cervical cancers.

As it does with other cancers, avoiding tobacco smoking or excessive alcohol intake reduces the risk of head and neck cancers. For those who do smoke tobacco, one study that included over 20,000 people showed that people who quit smoking for one to four years had a 30 percent lower risk of head and neck cancer, while quitting for 20 years was associated with a risk reduction of over 75 percent. Eliminating alcohol intake was linked to a 40 percent lower risk, but only after 20 years of teetotalling.

People diagnosed with a head and neck cancer may be treated with surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy or a combination, with five-year survival rates that now approach 70 percent – a 15 percent improvement over the past 50 years.

Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, MS, is the chief of the division of hematology and professor of medicine at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami. He is author of the books ” When Blood Breaks Down: Life Lessons From Leukemia ” and ” Drugs and the FDA: Safety, Efficacy, and the Public’s Trust .”

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