Risk of upper aerodigestive tract cancer and type of alcoholic beverage: a European multicenter case-control study.
The general relationship between cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) and alcohol drinking is established. Nevertheless, it is uncertain whether different types of alcoholic beverages (wine, beer and liquor) carry different UADT cancer risks. Our study included 2,001 UADT cancer cases and 2,125 controls from 14 centres in 10 European countries. All cases were histologically or cytologically confirmed squamous cell carcinomas. Controls were frequency matched by sex, age and centre. Logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 %CI) adjusted for age, sex, centre, education level, vegetable and fruit intake, tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking, where appropriate. Risk of beverage-specific alcohol consumption were calculated among 'pure drinker' who consumed one beverage type exclusively, among 'predominant drinkers' who consumed one beverage type to more than 66 % and among 'mixed drinkers' who consumed more than one beverage type to similar proportions. Compared to never drinkers and adjusted for cumulative alcohol consumption, the OR and 95 %CI for wine, beer and liquor drinking, respectively, were 1.24 (0.86, 1.78), 1.54 (1.05, 2.27) and 0.94 (0.53, 1.64) among 'pure drinkers' (p value for heterogeneity across beverage types = 0.306), 1.05 (0.76,1.47), 1.25 (0.87,1.79) and 1.43 (0.95, 2.16) among 'predominant drinkers' (p value = 0.456), and 1.09 (0.79, 1.50), 1.20 (0.88, 1.63) and 1.12 (0.82, 1.53) among 'mixed drinkers' (p value = 0.889). Risk of UADT cancer increased with increasing consumption of all three alcohol beverage types. Our findings underscore the strong and comparable carcinogenic effect of ethanol in wine, beer and liquor on organs of the UADT.
Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (IMBEI), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany. marron@uni-mainz.de
Manuela
M
Marron
Paolo
P
Boffetta
Henrik
H
Møller
Wolfgang
W
Ahrens
Hermann
H
Pohlabeln
Simone
S
Benhamou
Christine
C
Bouchardy
Pagona
P
Lagiou
Areti
A
Lagiou
Alena
A
Slámová
Miriam
M
Schejbalová
Franco
F
Merletti
Lorenzo
L
Richiardi
Kristina
K
Kjaerheim
Antonio
A
Agudo
Xavier
X
Castellsague
Tatiana Victorovna
TV
Macfarlane
Gary John
GJ
Macfarlane
Renato
R
Talamini
Luigi
L
Barzan
Cristina
C
Canova
Lorenzo
L
Simonato
Anne-Marie
AM
Biggs
Peter
P
Thomson
David Ian
DI
Conway
Patricia Ann
PA
McKinney
Ariana
A
Znaor
Claire Marie
CM
Healy
Bernard Eugene
BE
McCartan
Paul
P
Brennan
Mia
M
Hashibe
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages / Q000145:classification* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001515:Beer / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015984:Causality; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D014920:Wine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data