Alcohol consumption and risk of lung cancer in the VITamins And Lifestyle Study.

The effect of alcoholic beverage consumption on lung cancer risk was investigated in the VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) Study. The VITAL study is a prospective cohort of residents aged 50-76 yr in Washington state. Five hundred and eighty incident lung cancer cases diagnosed between study baseline (2000-2002) and 2007 were identified among 66,186 participants without previous cancer through the Washington Surveillance Epidemiology and End Result cancer registry. Multivariable Cox's regression was used to examine the effects of beer, red wine, white wine, liquor, combined alcoholic beverage intake at study baseline, and alcohol intake at age 30 and 45 on lung cancer risk, with careful adjustment for smoking. There was no clear association between lung cancer and consumption of beer, red wine, white wine, or liquor at ≥1 drink/day. Combined alcoholic beverage intake of up to ≥3 drink/day was not associated with elevated overall lung cancer risk. Heavy consumption of alcohol at study baseline and at age 45 was, however, associated with more than doubling of risk for squamous cell carcinoma (hazard ratio for ≥3 drink/day at study baseline = 2.54, 95% CI: 1.36-4.73, P value for linear trend = 0.002) but not for adenocarcinoma. Alcohol intake at age 30 was not associated with lung cancer risk.