About GlaHNC
Around 1300 new cases of head and neck cancer are diagnosed each year in Scotland, making it the 6th most common cancer. Incidence rates in Scotland are higher than in the other UK nations reflecting higher prevalence of risk factors in past years and a strong association with socioeconomic deprivation.
Instances of head and neck cancer have increased significantly in recent years, with oropharyngeal cancer having increased 3.7% each year over the past 20 years. Over half of new diagnoses of head and neck cancer in Scotland are made in the West of Scotland Cancer Network. The cancer network serves a population of 2.5 million people with the city of Glasgow at its centre.
Scotland has the lowest life expectancy in Western Europe: this is strongly linked to socioeconomic deprivation and inequalites with the average life expectancy in the most socieoconomically deprived areas of Scotland around 13 years lower than in the least socioeconomialy deprived. The association between socioeconomic deprivation and head and neck cancer needs little introduction. In Glasgow and the West of Scotland, 57% of patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer live in the most socioeconomically deprived areas. The associated burden of advanced disease at presentation, high rates of smoking and alcohol use and high proportion of comorbidities present significant treatment challenges for the local multidisciplinary (MDT) team treating these patients.
Glasgow has a strong history of academic expertise in this field, with the Glasgow based physician John Boyd Orr winning the Nobel peace prize in 1949 for being the first scientist to show that there was a link between poverty, poor diet and ill health.
GLAHNC leads the scientific theme of ‘Socioeconomic determinants of radiotherapy outcomes’ with a focus on head and neck cancer, in the CRUK RadNet Glasgow+ program.