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Alcohol Consumption May Lower Risk of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
People who drank alcohol had a lower risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) than those who did not drink, a group of researchers reported in The Lancet Oncology. The research team was led by former EPH master's and doctoral student Lindsay M. Morton, Ph.D., who is now at the National Cancer Institute. The researchers reported that the protective effect of alcohol did not vary by type of alcohol consumed, and did not increase as alcohol consumption increased. However, the protective effect of alcohol did vary by NHL subtype, and was greatest for Burkitt's lymphoma. Age, sex, family history of NHL, and history of cigarette smoking were not found to modify the effect of alcohol consumption on NHL risk. The researchers called for further study to confirm their findings and to determine whether confounding lifestyle factors or alcohol's immunomodulatory effects explain the association between alcohol consumption and decreased NHL risk. The study is important because NHL incidence is rising throughout the world, and in developed countries, NHL is the sixth most common cancer in men and the eighth most common in women. Previous studies examining the relationship between alcohol consumption and NHL risk have been inconsistent, likely due to small sample size resulting from stratification by NHL subtype and type of alcohol consumed. Researchers for this study sought a sample size that would allow for analysis by type of alcohol consumed and disease subtype. The resulting study was a pooled analysis of original data from nine case-control studies in the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph), with a pooled study population of 15,175. EPH faculty involved in the study included Tongzhang Zheng, B.Med.,Sc.D.,Sc.M., Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Theodore R. Holford, Ph.D., Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, and Susan T. Mayne, Ph.D., F.A.C.E., Professor of Epidemiology. The National Cancer Institute funded the study. Other authors included Elizabeth A. Holly, University of California at San Francisco, Brian C.H. Chiu, Northwestern University Medical School, Adele Seniori Costantini, Scientific Institute of Tuscany, Emanuele Stagnaro, National Cancer Research Institute, Eleanor V. Willett, University of York, Luigino Dal Maso, Aviano Cancer Centre, Diego Serraino, Institute of Shelter and Cure to Scientific Character, Ellen T. Chang, Karolinska Institute, Wendy Cozen, Keck School of Medicine, Scott Davis, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington, Richard K. Severson, Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University, Leslie Bernstein, Keck School of Medicine, Fred R. Dee, Carver College of Medicine, James R. Cerhan, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and Patricia Hartge, National Cancer Institute. Citation: The Lancet Oncology, online publication June 7, 2005.
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