title: Alcohol drinking and risk of renal cell carcinoma: results of a meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The role of alcohol consumption in relation with renal cell carcinoma is still unclear; a few studies have reported a beneficial effect of moderate levels of alcohol consumption, whereas it remains still under debate whether there is a dose-response association.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty observational studies (4 cohort, 1 pooled and 15 case-control) reporting results on at least three levels of alcohol consumption were selected through a combined search with PubMed and EMBASE of articles published before November 2010. Overall relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using random-effects models, and both second-order fractional polynomials and random effect meta-regression models were implemented for the study of dose-risk relation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The estimated RRs were 0.85 (95% CI: 0.80-0.92) for any alcohol drinking, 0.90 (95% CI: 0.83-0.97) for light drinking (0.01-12.49 g/day), 0.79 (95% CI: 0.71-0.88) for moderate drinking (12.5-49.9 g/day) and 0.89 (95% CI: 0.58-1.39) for heavy drinking (≥50 g/day), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our meta-analysis supports the hypothesis of a negative effect of moderate alcohol consumption on the risk of renal cell cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Statistics, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan. Electronic address: Rino.Bellocco@unimib.it.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bellocco
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pasquali
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan; Department of Clinical Medicine and Prevention, Centre of Biostatistics for Clinical Epidemiology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Monza.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rota
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan; Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, European Institute of Oncology, Milan.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bagnardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tramacere
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Scotti
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pelucchi
authors.affiliation: International Prevention Research Institute, Lyon, France; The Tisch Cancer Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, USA.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boffetta
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Corrao
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, Milan, Italy; Department of Occupational Health, Section of Medical Statistics, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: La Vecchia
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000209:etiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012306:Risk