Effects of continuing or stopping exposure to risk-factors on natural history of laryngeal precancerous lesions

The process of laryngeal carcinogenesis often develops through quite slow steps (precancerous lesions) and is influenced by various risk factors, the most important being tobacco smoke and alcoholconsumption. Methods - In this study (including 216 men) we wanted toinvestigate wether continuing or stopping exposure to tobacco smoke and alcohol consumption would modify the natural history of such lesions in patients not treated other than by decortication of the true vocal cords for precancerous lesions, classified in accordance with the scale recommended by Hellquist: class 1 (mild dysplasia), class 2 (moderate dysplasia), class 3 (severe dysplasia - carcinoma in situ).