Alcohol consumption, type of alcoholic beverage and risk of colorectal cancer at specific subsites

Abstract

Within the Netherlands Cohort Study on diet and cancer, we investigated associations between total alcohol consumption, specific alcoholic beverage consumption and risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) according to anatomical subsite. Hazard Ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models. Analyses were performed on 2,323 CRC cases, available after 13.3 years of follow-up. Compared to abstaining, alcohol consumption of 30.0 g/day (3 alcoholic drinks) was positively associated with the risk of CRC (HR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.06-1.65). Analyses restricted to subjects who reported to have consumed equal amounts of alcohol 5 years before baseline compared to baseline, showed elevated risk estimates for consumers of 30.0 g of total alcohol per day as well (HR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.16-2.01). Suggestive of a subsite-specific effect, cancer risk seemed to increase from proximal colon through rectum; HR: 1.29, 95% CI: 0.85-1.96 for proximal colon cancer, HR: 1.41, 95% CI: 0.94-2.11 for distal colon cancer, HR: 2.07, 95% CI: 1.03-4.18 for rectosigmoid cancer and HR: 1.69, 95% CI: 1.08-2.64 for rectal cancer. No associations were observed between consumption of alcoholic beverages and CRC risk when compared with the nondrinkers of the specific beverage and after adjustment for total alcohol intake. No evidence was found for sex-specific effects of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. In conclusion, our data showed a positive association between alcohol consumption and risk of CRC, which seemed to be mainly explained by the alcoholic content of alcoholic beverages, rather than other constituents. Also, cancer risk may vary according to anatomical subsite.

Subsite-specific colorectal cancer risk in the colorectal endoscopy era

“…52 In 2 cohort studies, CRC risk seemed to increase from the proximal colon to the rectum with higher alcohol intake. 53,54 Since the 1960s, the prevalence of smoking among U.S. adults has decreased in both sexes, although it has constantly been higher for men compared with women. 55 Additionally, the prevalence of high-intensity smoking was found to have decreased greatly between 1965 and 2007.…”

A Novel Polymorphism rs1329149 of CYP2E1 and a Known Polymorphism rs671 of ALDH2 of Alcohol Metabolizing Enzymes Are Associated with Colorectal Cancer in a Southwestern Chinese Population

“…[2][3][4][5]. The risk of CRC was increased at the level of 1.07-to 3.50-fold in western countries and 1.42-to 2.19-fold in Asian populations (Japanese and Koreans) among drinkers (4,5).…”

Colorectal Cancer and Alcohol

“…A recent meta analysis from the IARC of 34 case control and 7 cohort studies provides strong evidence for an association between alcohol consumption of more than 1 drink per day and the risk for colorectal cancer (Fedirko et al, 2011). Similar results were reported from the Netherlands (Bongaerts et al, 2008(Bongaerts et al, , 2010 and the US (Thygesen et al, 2008) but not from Great Britain (Park et al, 2009(Park et al, , 2010. The accumulation of all these convincing epidemiologic data on alcohol and colorectal cancer resulted by the IARC that chronic alcohol consumption is a risk factor for colorectal cancer (Baan et al, 2007).…”