Dermatoglyphs and larynx cancer.

Cancer of the larynx is the seventh most common malignant disease among middle-aged men in Croatia. Morbidity ratio between men and women is 17:1. Etiology of disease is directly connected with the tobacco use while genetic influences have not yet been studied enough. Digito-palmar dermatoglyphs analysis has already been used in studying the genetic etiology of certain malignant diseases (lung, breast, cervical, colorectal, melanoma and gastric cancer). We have analyzed correlation of quantitative and qualitative traits between two groups (group of 40 men with larynx cancer versus control group of 100 phenotypically healthy men). Quantitative statistical analysis (descriptive statistics, multivariate and univariate analysis) has not shown statistically significant difference except for the latent structure using factor analysis. Qualitative analysis has shown statistically significant difference among two investigated groups thus suggesting the faster changes of the qualitative features under the influence of the ecological factors.