Alcohol Intake Tied to Increased Colorectal Cancer Risk

Transcript generated from video captions.

Hello. I’m Dr Maurie Markman, from City of Hope. I’d like to discuss a very interesting paper that appeared in Cancer, entitled, “Association of alcohol intake over the lifetime with colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer risk in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.”

This is an important paper. It is very clear, certainly to those in the public health community and cancer doctors, that there is an association with alcohol intake and the risk of cancer. However, in population-based surveys, there is a very large percentage of individuals who do not appear to see the risk of alcohol intake, particularly excessive alcohol intake, related to cancer, or an even larger segment of population simply doesn’t know. This analysis is important to help address this question.

The investigators looked at adults in the United States who were enrolled in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, which is a very important study that had been ongoing for many years. Individuals in this study reported at several timepoints during their participation what their current and past alcohol intake was.

What these investigators found is as follows. Among the 88,092 participants, there were a total of 1679 incident colorectal cancers that developed over 20 years of follow-up. Investigators demonstrated that current drinkers with an average lifetime alcohol intake of 14 or more drinks per week, or approximately 2 drinks per day, had a higher risk of colorectal cancer with a hazard ratio of 1.25, a 25% increase, compared to those individuals who had ≤ 1 drink per week.

Very importantly, individuals were characterized by their own information that they provided as consistent heavy drinking versus light drinking. This was associated with almost a doubling of the risk of the development of colorectal cancer over that 20-year period.

Clearly, heavy drinking and higher lifetime alcohol intake is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer. This is relevant information for public health officials, primary care doctors, and the public in general to understand that there is a risk if you drink often, particularly heavy drinking, with increased development of cancer in general — but in this case, we’re talking specifically about colorectal cancer.

I thank you for your attention.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Transcript generated from video captions.

Hello. I’m Dr Maurie Markman, from City of Hope. I’d like to discuss a very interesting paper that appeared in Cancer, entitled, “Association of alcohol intake over the lifetime with colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer risk in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.”

This is an important paper. It is very clear, certainly to those in the public health community and cancer doctors, that there is an association with alcohol intake and the risk of cancer. However, in population-based surveys, there is a very large percentage of individuals who do not appear to see the risk of alcohol intake, particularly excessive alcohol intake, related to cancer, or an even larger segment of population simply doesn’t know. This analysis is important to help address this question.

The investigators looked at adults in the United States who were enrolled in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, which is a very important study that had been ongoing for many years. Individuals in this study reported at several timepoints during their participation what their current and past alcohol intake was.

What these investigators found is as follows. Among the 88,092 participants, there were a total of 1679 incident colorectal cancers that developed over 20 years of follow-up. Investigators demonstrated that current drinkers with an average lifetime alcohol intake of 14 or more drinks per week, or approximately 2 drinks per day, had a higher risk of colorectal cancer with a hazard ratio of 1.25, a 25% increase, compared to those individuals who had ≤ 1 drink per week.

Very importantly, individuals were characterized by their own information that they provided as consistent heavy drinking versus light drinking. This was associated with almost a doubling of the risk of the development of colorectal cancer over that 20-year period.

Clearly, heavy drinking and higher lifetime alcohol intake is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer. This is relevant information for public health officials, primary care doctors, and the public in general to understand that there is a risk if you drink often, particularly heavy drinking, with increased development of cancer in general — but in this case, we’re talking specifically about colorectal cancer.

I thank you for your attention.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Transcript generated from video captions.

Hello. I’m Dr Maurie Markman, from City of Hope. I’d like to discuss a very interesting paper that appeared in Cancer, entitled, “Association of alcohol intake over the lifetime with colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer risk in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.”

This is an important paper. It is very clear, certainly to those in the public health community and cancer doctors, that there is an association with alcohol intake and the risk of cancer. However, in population-based surveys, there is a very large percentage of individuals who do not appear to see the risk of alcohol intake, particularly excessive alcohol intake, related to cancer, or an even larger segment of population simply doesn’t know. This analysis is important to help address this question.

The investigators looked at adults in the United States who were enrolled in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, which is a very important study that had been ongoing for many years. Individuals in this study reported at several timepoints during their participation what their current and past alcohol intake was.

What these investigators found is as follows. Among the 88,092 participants, there were a total of 1679 incident colorectal cancers that developed over 20 years of follow-up. Investigators demonstrated that current drinkers with an average lifetime alcohol intake of 14 or more drinks per week, or approximately 2 drinks per day, had a higher risk of colorectal cancer with a hazard ratio of 1.25, a 25% increase, compared to those individuals who had ≤ 1 drink per week.

Very importantly, individuals were characterized by their own information that they provided as consistent heavy drinking versus light drinking. This was associated with almost a doubling of the risk of the development of colorectal cancer over that 20-year period.

Clearly, heavy drinking and higher lifetime alcohol intake is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer. This is relevant information for public health officials, primary care doctors, and the public in general to understand that there is a risk if you drink often, particularly heavy drinking, with increased development of cancer in general — but in this case, we’re talking specifically about colorectal cancer.

I thank you for your attention.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.