7/ Last but not least, a huge thanks to our fantastic team & collaborators from IARC-WHO, @sangerinstitute.bsky.social, @ucsandiego.bsky.social
and many more who made this work possible! 💡🔬 Also to @cancergrand.bsky.social for fantastic support, as well as to the patients and their families ♥️

6/ These findings deepen our understanding of how tobacco & alcohol contribute to HNC, reinforcing the urgent need for prevention efforts to reduce these exposures globally. 🚭

5/ And there’s more: cases exposed to both tobacco & alcohol had more alcohol-related mutations than alcohol-only cases, suggesting a combined effect. 🍷➕🚬🟰🙅‍♀️

4/ We also found that tobacco-induced mutations vary by anatomical site in the head & neck, suggesting that tissue-specific factors modulate mutagenesis.

3/ Our findings confirm tobacco as the main mutagen in HNC, but with a twist: we identified six distinct tobacco-related mutational signatures, which could be caused by different carcinogens in cigarette smoke. 🚬

2/ To tackle this, we analyzed whole-genome data from 265 HNC cases across 8 countries in Europe & South America—offering an unprecedented geographical representation of cases.

1/ At least 1 in 2 cancers is linked to modifiable risk factors. Identifying these exposures and understanding their effects is key to prevention, but challenging due to global differences in lifestyles & environments. 🌍