Alcohol consumption and lung cancer mortality in Japanese men: results from Japan collaborative cohort (JACC) study.
BACKGROUND
The relationship between alcohol consumption and increased risk of lung cancer is controversial. This study was set up to investigate the association between alcohol consumption and death from lung cancer in a large Japanese cohort.


METHODS
The subjects comprised 28,536 males, aged 40-79 years, living throughout Japan. During 268,464 person-years of follow-up, 377 lung cancer deaths were recorded. The hazard ratio (HR) of alcohol consumption for lung cancer mortality was calculated using the Cox proportional hazards model after adjustment for age, smoking and family history of lung cancer.


RESULTS
There was no association between increased mortality from lung cancer and alcohol consumption among current drinkers. Compared with subjects who had never drunk alcohol, the HRs (95% confidence interval [CI]) of death from lung cancer for light (consuming <25.0 g ethanol per day), moderate (25.0-49.9 g per day) and heavy (>or=50 g per day) drinkers were 0.81 (95% CI=0.61-1.07), 0.82 (0.61-1.11) and 0.97 (0.66-1.43), respectively. Further adjustment for fruit and vegetable intake did not change the results, and there was no change in HR materially after excluding those patients who died during the first 5 years of follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings indicate that alcohol consumption was not associated with increased lung cancer mortality in this population of Japanese men.
Division of Epidemiology, Miyagi Cancer Center Research Institute, Japan. nishino-yo539@pref.miyagi.jp
Yoshikazu
Y
Nishino
Kenji
K
Wakai
Takaaki
T
Kondo
Nao
N
Seki
Yoshinori
Y
Ito
Koji
K
Suzuki
Kotaro
K
Ozasa
Yoshiyuki
Y
Watanabe
Masahiko
M
Ando
Yoshitaka
Y
Tsubono
Ichiro
I
Tsuji
Akiko
A
Tamakoshi
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012907:Smoking