Figure 1.

General incident trends of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) as a function of yearly cigarette consumption. In the United States, the overall incidence of HNSCC (orange arrow) has paralleled the yearly annual cigarette consumption, with a peak incidence in the 1970s. A distinct departure from this trend has been noted among white males under 60, in whom the incidence of oropharyngeal carcinoma (red arrow) has been on the rise since the early 1970s.