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The role of drinking and smoking in mortality from cancer and other causes in male alcoholics
Author(s) -
Schmidt Wolfgang,
Popham Robert E.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19810301)47:5<1031::aid-cncr2820470534>3.0.co;2-c
Subject(s) - medicine , cancer , lung cancer , population , mortality rate , alcoholic liver disease , cirrhosis , liver cancer , stomach cancer , cause of death , prospective cohort study , disease , gastroenterology , demography , physiology , environmental health , sociology
In a prospective study of a sample of male alcoholics, age standardized rates of death from cancer and other causes were compared with expectancies based on the mortality of the general male population of Ontario and that of U. S. veterans in the Dorn Study. A typical profile of mortality due to alcoholism was found with high excess mortality from cirrhosis, pneumonia, violent causes, lung cancer, and cancers of the upper digestive and respiratory tracts. There was no evidence of the associations recently reported in the literature between alcohol use and other cancers such as those of the stomach, colon, and pancreas. Comparison with veterans whose smoking resembled that of the alcoholics revealed similar rates of death from lung cancer, considerable excess mortality among the alcoholics from cancers of the upper digestive and respiratory tracts, and no difference in overall cancer mortality. Heavy alcohol use per se increases the risk of cancer at certain sites, but it may not increase the overall risk of neoplastic disease. Cancer 47:1031–1041, 1981.