The effects of smoking and alcohol use at the risk of Upper Aero-Digestive cancers

Upper aero-digestive tract cancers (UADT), in particular those of the mouth cavity, pharynx and larynx, are often referred to as alcohol-related cancers such as has been demonstrated repeatedly that heavy drinkers, especially increased risk. The combination of heavy alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking is the most important factor in increasing the risk of these cancers.

A leading group of scientists from the International Agency for research on cancer (IRAC). evaluated the role of consumption of alcohol and tobacco, based on 2,252 upper aerodigestive squamous cell carcinoma cases and 1707 controls from seven centres in Brazil, Argentina and Cuba. Although this document only much earlier research supports, it is from a part of the world from which little information is available on the subject and it focuses on groups of people where the occurrence of such cancer is high.

The case-control analysis showed that both alcohol consumption and smoking tends to reduce the risk of such cancer increase. The main cause of this cancer, however, was the combination of smoking and alcohol consumption, with much higher risk than either only exposure. The effects on risk greater for smoke than for alcohol were: for non-smokers, there was little effect of alcohol only on risk. For non-drinkers, the risk of cancer associated with smoking was still raised, but was lower than it was for current drinkers.

Interaction of drinking and smoking: overall, this study confirms that there is a tendency for an increase in the risk for this cancer for both consumption of alcohol and tobacco use. More striking, however, was the strong interaction between these two positions: heavy smokers and heavy drinkers were by far the highest risk. For non-smokers, there was little effect of alcohol on the risk of these cancers, and none of the links between alcohol and cancer among such topics was statistically significant. As for the type of alcoholic beverage consumed, was always the risk for cancer highest among topics certifying that they only aperitifs or spirits, with little visible effect of the consumption of beer or wine consumed.

A particularly important finding in this study was that, under ex-drinkers and former smokers, the increased risks associated with alcohol and tobacco use declining steadily as the time since stop rising. As stated by the authors, most of these cancer could be prevented by stopping the use of one of these two agents. "

Article reference:
Szymanska K, Hung-RJ, Wunsch Filho V, Eluf-Neto J, Curado MP, Koifman S, Matos E, Menezes A, Fernandez L, Daudt AW, Boffetta P, Brennan P.
Alcohol and tobacco, and the risk of cancer of the upper aerodigestive tract in Latin America: a study of case – control. Cancer causes control 22 (2011): 1037. DOI 10.1007/s10552-011-9779-7
The detailed critique of this document
Boston University Medical Center