Respiratory Tract Cancer Incidences across Industry Groups: A Nationwide Cohort Study with More Than 70 Million Person-Years of Follow-Up

The number of cases and incidence rates of laryngeal and lung cancers have been increasing globally. Therefore, identifying the occupational causes of such cancers is an important concern for policymakers to prevent cancers and deaths. We used national health insurance service claims data in Korea. We included 10,786,000 workers aged between 25 and 64 years. In total, 74,366,928 total person-years of follow-up were included in this study with a mean follow-up of 6.89 years for each person. The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) referenced with the total workers were estimated. For laryngeal cancer, increased SIRs were observed in the land transportation industry among male workers (SIR [95% CI]: 1.65 [1.02–2.53]). For lung cancer, elevated SIRs were observed in the industries including animal production (1.72 [1.03–2.68]), fishing (1.70 [1.05–2.60]), mining (1.69 [1.22–2.27]), travel (1.41 [1.00–1.93]), and transportation (1.22 [1.15–1.30]) among male workers. For female works, healthcare (2.08 [1.04–3.72]) and wholesale (1.88 [1.18–2.85]) industries were associated with a high risk of lung cancer. As an increased risk of respiratory tract cancers has been identified in employees associated with certain industries, appropriate policy intervention is needed to prevent occupational cancers.