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A case-control study of alcoholic beverage consumption in relation to risk of cancer of the right colon and rectum in men

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To examine the relation between alcoholic beverage consumption and risk of cancer of the right colon and rectum, 644 male cases and 992 male community controls were interviewed by telephone. The risks of cancer at these sites associated with alcohol consumption five years in the past were similar; using subjects with right colon cancer for reference, the adjusted relative risk (RR) of rectal cancer associated with five or more drinks per day was 0.9 (95% confidence limits = 0.4, 1.7). Alcohol consumption 20 years in the past was associated with a greater risk of rectal cancer (RR for five or more drinks per day = 1.8 [1.0, 3.3]). Analyses based on a community controls provided weaker evidence, consistent with previous findings, that heavy consumption of alcohol five years in the past, and possibly of beer in particular, was associated with moderately increased risk of colorectal cancer (RR of cancer of the right colon associated with consumption of five or more alcoholic drinks per day was 1.8 [1.0, 3.2], and of cancer of the rectum was 1.5 [0.9, 2.5]).

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  1. Matthew P. Longnecker
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At the time of this work Dr Longnecker was a Medical Foundation Research Fellow in the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, supported by the Medical Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts. His current address, to which reprint requests should be sent, is Department of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, USA 90024-1772. The research was supported by a grant from the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation, Baltimore MD.

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Longnecker, M.P. A case-control study of alcoholic beverage consumption in relation to risk of cancer of the right colon and rectum in men. Cancer Causes Control 1, 5–14 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053178

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