Cancer of the throat is NOT the number one cause of chronic sore throat. It is the number one cause of sore throat that should not be ignored . Anybody can, it's true.
Some people are more prone to get it than others, though.
Humphrey Bogart died of it, and if you can imagine him in one of his roles- say in Casablanca , you'll get the idea right away. Cigarettes and liquor set the throat up for getting throat cancer almost the same way that too much sun can set the skin up for skin cancer. These exposed areas of the body are the fields. Any person who has fogged their inside upper parts with smoke and alcohol has stressed the mucosa lining these parts, but odds are, even then, that actual cancer will NOT develop. Even if such a thing does happen, it is possible to get rid of the tumor with proper care.