tobacco habits and risk of oral cancer: a retrospective study in india

background: it is suggested that various forms of tobacco use have some effects on diverse sites of head and neck to develop cancer. material and methods: the study examines data for oral cancer in male subjects, collected from the population registered in cancer registry during the year 2007- 2008. all the data collected were entered into the spreadsheets. the statistical package for social sciences (spss) software version 11.0 was used for data processing and data analysis. results: smoking and chewing develops a high risk of oral cancer. most of the tobacco consumers are in their 40s. people younger than 30 years used betel-quid in abundance (47.1%). bidi was the choice of tobacco for 41-50 age group. in people with less than ten years duration of using tobacco products, gutkha was consumed in abundance (20.7%). for frequency of 6-10 times per day, smoking bidi was consumed in 61.4% of instances. conclusion: the crux of the problem is that majority of the cases are reported with a significant delay to the health care facility. nationwide counseling on tobacco cessation is required in a developing country like india.