title: Cancer incidence and mortality attributable to alcohol consumption.
abstract: Alcohol consumption is a major cause of disease and death. In a previous study, we reported that in 2002, 3.6% of all cases of cancer and a similar proportion of cancer deaths were attributable to the consumption of alcohol. We aimed to update these figures to 2012 using global estimates of cancer cases and cancer deaths, data on the prevalence of drinkers from the World Health Organization (WHO) global survey on alcohol and health, and relative risks for alcohol-related neoplasms from a recent meta-analysis. Over the 10-year period considered, the total number of alcohol-attributable cancer cases increased to approximately 770,000 worldwide (5.5% of the total number of cancer cases)-540,000 men (7.2%) and 230,000 women (3.5%). Corresponding figures for cancer deaths attributable to alcohol consumption increased to approximately 480,000 (5.8% of the total number of cancer deaths) in both sexes combined-360,000 (7.8%) men and 120,000 (3.3%) women. These proportions were particularly high in the WHO Western Pacific region, the WHO European region and the WHO South-East Asia region. A high burden of cancer mortality and morbidity is attributable to alcohol, and public health measures should be adopted in order to limit excessive alcohol consumption.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Università Degli Studi Di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Praud
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, IRCCS-Istituto Di Ricerche Farmacologiche 'Mario Negri', Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rota
authors.affiliation: Social and Epidemiological Research Department, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada.|Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.|Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.|Epidemiological Research Unit, Klinische Psychologie & Psychotherapie, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rehm
authors.affiliation: Social and Epidemiological Research Department, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada.|Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shield
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Witold
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zatoński
authors.affiliation: Department of Family & Preventive Medicine and Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah.
authors.forename: Mia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hashibe
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Università Degli Studi Di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: La Vecchia
authors.affiliation: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, The Tisch Cancer Institute and Institute of Translational Epidemiology, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boffetta
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D015995:Prevalence; D012306:Risk; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: alcohol; attributable fraction; incidence; mortality; neoplasms