Taiwan study: No link between drinking and pancreatic cancer

Alcohol consumption does not seem to substantially impact population occurrence rates of pancreatic cancer, a recent Taiwan study has found. This null effect seems to hold even among people who are genetically susceptible to the carcinogenicity of alcohol.

Through a case-control design, the researchers assessed the link between alcohol use and pancreatic cancer in 419 patients (mean age 63.4±0.5 years, 56.6 percent men) and 963 controls (mean age 58.3±0.4 years, 42.4 percent men). Polymorphisms in the ADH1B and ADLH2 genes, both involved in ethanol metabolism, were used as bases for pancreatic risk to alcohol.

Unconditional logistic regression analysis, adjusted for age, sex, education, cigarette smoking, and other confounders, found that current regular alcohol consumers were not at an increased risk of pancreatic cancer vs never drinkers (odds ratio [OR], 1.3, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.63–1.68). The same was true for those who were former regular or occasional drinkers.

Frequency of alcohol consumption was likewise unrelated to pancreatic cancer, with even daily drinkers reporting no increased risk (OR, 0.94, 95 percent CI, 0.56–1.57). The same was true for heavy vs never drinkers (OR, 1.17, 95 percent CI, 0.57–2.38). Lower frequencies and levels of alcohol consumption had even weaker interactions with pancreatic cancer.

Notably, analyses stratified by smoking status likewise revealed no significant link between alcohol drinking and pancreatic cancer. Similarly, disaggregating participants according to their genetic risk had no significant impact on the null relation between drinking and pancreatic cancer.

“Due to the differences in alcohol use prevalence and behaviours, our results may not be generalizable to populations in other countries. Our results only suggested that alcohol is not a major contributor to the occurrence of pancreatic cancer in Taiwan,” the researchers said.