Reevaluating the alcohol–cancer link: Long-term cancer mortality outcomes in the REGARDS Study

Cancer prevention strategies often focus on behaviour change such as increased screening, smoking cessation, and healthy diets. Recently, enthusiasm for addressing alcohol as a significant cancer risk factor has gained attention. Using a large, population-based cohort, researchers sought to determine independent associations between the consumption of alcoholic beverages and cancer mortality.

The study analysed data from the REGARDS cohort study, which enrolled 30,239 adults 45+ years between 2003 and 2007 and follows them until today. At enrolment, participants self-reported alcohol consumption as none, light (≤ 3 drinks/week), moderate (4–7 drinks/week for women, 4–14 drinks/week for men), and heavy (≥ 8 drinks/week for women and ≥ 15 drinks/week for men). The associations between the consumption of alcoholic beverages and cancer mortality were estimated.

Among 26,694 participants with a mean age of 64.4 years, 44% were male, 42% were Non-Hispanic Black, 63% reported  alcohol, 22% light, 11% moderate, and 4% heavy consumption of alcoholic beverages. Over an average 13.3-year follow-up, 2,306 cancer deaths were observed. After adjusting for other lifestyle factors, compared to abstainers, heavy drinkers had an 21% increased risk of cancer death, and light drinkers had a 13% decreased risk of cancer mortality, and there was no association between moderate drinking and cancer mortality.

These findings contribute to the growing evidence that heavy alcohol use is consistently linked with higher cancer mortality. The researchers encourage cancer prevention strategies to step away from isolating single health behaviours and consider holistic perspectives of an individual’s lifestyle including physical activity, smoking, diet, and consumption of alcoholic beverages.