Warthin tumour: A potential benign mass for assessing smoking index and predicting synchronous neoplastic tumours in smokers

Author(s):

Jude Okoye*

Background: Warthin Tumour (WT), common in smokers, is the second most prevalent benign mass with epithelia-glandular and lymphoid characteristics. This study determined the prevalence of WT in some countries and the prevalence of subgroups of Synchronous Salivary Gland Tumours (SSGT) in patients with WT. It also assessed the relationship between WT and cigarette consumption.

Methods: Peer-reviewed articles published between 1999 and 2019, and found on Google scholar, African Journal Online and PubMed were reviewed.

Results: The prevalence of WT is higher in developed countries (41.3% to 12.2%) than in developing countries (8.6% to 0.0%; p= 0.0002) with a male to female ratio of 18:1 to 1.2:1. There was a significant relationship between WT and intensity/prevalence of smoking (p=0.002). In documented cases of SSGT (n= 142), the mean age of males (n= 179 years; 63.51 years ± 2.42 years) was significantly higher than that of their females counterparts (n= 27 years; 47.11 years ± 6.17 years; p= 0.0062). The ratio of males to females with SSGT was 6.6:1. The SSGTs subgroups are: Head and neck (55.4%), lymphoma (19.2%), lungs (13.0%), breast (3.4%), thyroid and urinary tract (2.7% each), prostate (2.1%), liver and cervix (0.7%). The frequency of squamous cell carcinoma (28.8%) was higher than other histologically classified tumours.

Conclusion: This study revealed that the prevalence of WT could be used to assess the extent and effect of cigarette consumption in countries. Screening heavy smokers may not only detect WT early but also help in identifying those at higher risk of developing SSGTs