More than 30,000 new cases of oral and throat cancer occur annually in the United States (AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY). Oral cancer includes cancer of your lips, mouth, tongue, gums and salivary glands. Throat cancer involves cancer of the part of your throat just behind your mouth. It's estimated that more than 7,000 Americans die of oral and throat cancers annually. About 90 percent of people who develop these cancers use some form of tobacco. But there are risks that can also be reduced in addition to tobacco that are linked with oral cancer. Those exposures that are both unnecessary and preventable include excessive alcohol consumption,human papillomavirus (HPV) or too much ultraviolet light .
Two-thirds of all cancer is thought to come from outside of the body. There is still much we can do to prevent environmental exposures linked to cancer.
Our environment is the proverbial mirror for human health.
Bill Couzens, Founder Lesscancer.org

I blame the decades of living on Jack Daniels & Blow for the bad diagnostics on Eddie's behalf, and the Marlboro Red's for the cancer.

Did you know that smoking is the leading cause of statistics?

I think Eddie's opinion is unrelated to reality.

Tobacco smoking is not the only way to develop mouth cancer. A strain of the HPV virus that causes cervical cancer has started showing up in head and neck cancer. It is essentially a STD transmitted via oral sex. I have heard that in the future it will be responsible for about 50% of the oral cancers.

this will be spoken like a true reformed smoker, but in all honesty when I was a smoker u couldn't pry them from my hand's. I was the most out spoken ADVOCATE to ones right to puff away, But now after watching my father die from high blood pressure aggravated by cigarette smoking. Watching my father in law pass away from cancer aggravated by cigarettes, and now watching my dear friend waste away to a bone from emphysema a direct impact disorder from years of smoking. Leaves me with just one piece of unsolicited advice, if u never smoke ur not missing anything, but bad health,rancid breath, receding gums and loss of ur teeth, not to mention all the mess,cost,burn marks. People that smoke have it on their clothes so even if u take a bath daily u still smell like smoke. If u do smoke and wish to stop there are new medications u can get from ur doc plus clinics to help u stop. But if u can't stop altogether try first to cut dowm and smoke with deliberate for thought. Some times the easiest way to rid ur self of an unwanted habit is to divert ur usual patters into obsecure ones, then change those daily and u maybe able to quit cold turkey! I stopped smoking in 1986 after having severe chest pains every time I lit up, but it wasn't over night success,it takes alot of desire to not smoke. 21 years later I'm just one cigg away from reverting. So again if u haven't please never do,and if u do try and stop, u will not regret it! Plublic service announcement brought to u by experience!

in THIS case a 'rock star' hard living has finally caught up with them, wonder how long before Amy and
Rolling Stones get a 'reality check'. EVH probably fortunately has good health insurance which he's lucky in that respect as a lotta folks in the same condition probably don't.

I recall Eddie from the San Gabriel Valley daze ... backyard parties, they'd play anywhere and got popular locally fast. Eddie is one of the few real innovators on the guitar ... one of maybe 20. I have to respect how far he came and what he accomplished.

He'd do well to drop the negativity mentally that's plagued these last 20 years. Just a suggestion .. Be thankful for all that you'd had the chance to give and what's been returned to you. My 2 cents.

Very sad news about Van Halen. He's such a talented guitarist.

It's possible that lying to himself about the cause is what he needs to do to get through. I lost my dad to throat and lung cancer and he had no illusions about how he got it. He hadn't smoked in the 15 years before his death but the 40 years he smoked 2 packs a day was the cause and he not only knew it, he let everyone else know it. He wrote letters to all of his grandchildren asking them not to smoke when they got older. All 6 of them have listened.

I hope Van Halen is not only relying on the "practitioner of alternative medicine" who smokes and drinks with him ... he has a son who's picked up his love of music, hopefully he doesn't pick up his love of excess.

Eddie has given us so much good music over the years, and you people want to indulge in grade-school name-calling. Think about this; he has the cancer, admitting the truth won't make him better. It may be too late for the poor guy anyway, so let him puff away his remaining time on Earth. Also, don't forget that we are hearng all this third-hand, so maybe we should wait to hear Eddie himself deny the link between tobacco and cancer before casting our stones.

How else do you get mouth cancer? What a dope.

Saying it ain't so doesn't help. He needs to educate himself about cancer. There is lots of good medical information on the internet. Do a little research Eddie!

eddie already had one removed tumor reappear, DLR.

I've known a lot of people with a lot of kinds of cancer. But every single person I ever knew who had mouth or throat cancer was a smoker AND drinker. Science can keep their statistics -- that's the only survey I need.

Eddy, you need a lesson in what tobacco does to the body. Yes, it is linked to mouth cancer. My uncle a smoker for years also suffered from this form of cancer, had to have parts of his mouth and jaw removed. I am not sure which was worse, watching my uncle so badly deformed after surjury, or watching him suffer from emphysyma. But seriously, either way, its a bad outcome. Please quit while you 're behind.