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Alcoholic Beverage Intake and Risk of Lung Cancer: The California Men's Health Study

¹ Department of Research and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, California and ² Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, California

Requests for reprints: Chun Chao, Department of Research and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, 100 South Los Robles Avenue, Suite 201, Pasadena, CA 91101. Phone: 626-564-3797; Fax: 626-564-3409. E-mail: chun.r.chao{at}kp.org

We investigated the effect of alcoholic beverage consumption on the risk of lung cancer using the California Men's Health Study.

Methods: The California Men's Health Study is a multiethnic cohort of 84,170 men ages 45 to 69 years who are members of the Kaiser Permanente California health plans. Demographics and detailed lifestyle characteristics were collected from surveys mailed between 2000 and 2003. Incident lung cancer cases were identified by health plan cancer registries through December 2006 (n = 210). Multivariable Cox's regression was used to examine the effects of beer, red wine, white wine (including rosé), and liquor consumption on risk of lung cancer adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, education, income, body mass index, history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/emphysema, and smoking history.

Results: There was a significant linear decrease in risk of lung cancer associated with consumption of red wine among ever-smokers: hazard ratio (HR), 0.98; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.96-1.00 for increase of 1 drink per month. This relationship was slightly stronger among heavy smokers (20 pack-years): HR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.93-1.00. When alcoholic beverage consumption was examined by frequency of intake, consumption of 1 drink of red wine per day was associated with an approximately 60% reduced lung cancer risk in ever-smokers: HR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.14-1.08. No clear associations with lung cancer were seen for intake of white wine, beer, or liquor.

Conclusion: Moderate red wine consumption was inversely associated with lung cancer risk after adjusting for confounders. Our results should not be extrapolated to heavy alcohol consumption. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(10):2692–9)