Alcohol consumption and 10-year mortality in oral and pharyngeal cancer

Previous studies on the association of alcohol drinking with the prognosis of patients with oral and pharyngeal cancer are scarce and conflicting. Most previous studies are surveys from Europe, and examined up to 5 years of overall survival. A research team therefore evaluated the association between alcohol consumption and 10-year mortality among oral and pharyngeal cancer patients in Japan.

2,626 eligible cancer patients diagnosed between 1975 and 2010, identified through a hospital-based cancer registry in Japan, were followed up for up to 10 years. Alcohol consumption was used to divide subjects into five categories: non-drinker, ex-drinker, light (≤23 g/day of ethanol), moderate (23 < and ≤ 46 g/day of ethanol), and heavy drinker (> 46 g/day of ethanol), respectively. The association of alcohol consumption with 10-year all-cause mortality was evaluated, adjusting for sex, age, primary site, cancer stage, number of multiple cancers, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, smoking status and diagnosis year.
Of the 2,626 case of oral and pharyngeal cancer cases analyse, a total of 2626 oral and pharyngeal cancer cases, 77.0% of total cases was men (n = 2022). Of the total sample, 579 (22.0%) patients were heavy drinkers. The median survival time was 2800 days in non-drinkers, 682 days in ex-drinkers, 2923 days in light drinkers, 2101 days in moderate drinkers, and 1114 days in heavy. Ex-drinker and heavy drinker cases had a significantly higher risk of death than non-drinkers (ex-drinker; HR=1.59; 95% CI,1.28-1.96, heavy drinker; HR=1.36; 95% CI,1.14-1.62). Heavy drinkers had a significantly higher risk of death than non-drinkers in both men and women (men; HR=1.35; 95% CI,1.10-1.65, women; HR=2.52; 95% CI,1.41-4.49).
Among oral and pharyngeal cancer patients, an elevated risk of death was observed for heavy drinkers who consumed more than 46 g/day of ethanol compared with non-drinkers. In addition, this relationship was observed in both men and women.
Source: Shihoko Koyama, Takahiro Tabuchi, Toshitaka Morishima, Isao Miyashiro, Alcohol consumption and 10-year mortality in oral and pharyngeal cancer, Cancer Epidemiology, Volume 89, 2024,102540, ISSN 1877-7821,