Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology Advance Access published online on October 22, 2008
Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology, doi:10.1093/jjco/hyn108
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved
Alcohol Drinking and Liver Cancer Risk: An Evaluation Based on a Systematic Review of Epidemiologic Evidence among the Japanese Population
1 Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University, Saga
2 Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Forensic Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai
3 Department of Preventive Medicine/Biostatistics and Medical Decision Making, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya
4 Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Gifu University School of Medicine, Gifu
5 Department of Epidemiology and International Health, Research Institute, International Medical Center of Japan, Tokyo
6 Epidemiology and Prevention Division, Research Center for Cancer Prevention and Screening, National Cancer Center, Tokyo, Japan
For reprints and all correspondence: Keitaro Tanaka, Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University 5-1-1 Nabeshima, Saga 849-8501, Japan. E-mail: tanakake{at}post.saga-med.ac.jp
Received July 6, 2008; accepted September 15, 2008
Background: Although alcohol consumption has been recognized as a risk factor for primary liver cancer, it will be informative to summarize relevant epidemiologic data in the Japanese who have characteristic environmental determinants (e.g. hepatitis C virus infection) and genetic traits (e.g. presence of poor acetaldehyde metabolizers).
Methods: We systematically reviewed epidemiologic studies on alcohol drinking and liver cancer among Japanese populations. Original data were obtained through searches of the MEDLINE (PubMed) and Ichushi databases, complemented with manual searches. The evaluation was performed in terms of the magnitude of association (‘strong’, ‘moderate’, ‘weak’ or ‘no association’) in each study and the strength of evidence (‘convincing’, ‘probable’, ‘possible’ or ‘insufficient’), together with biological plausibility as previously assessed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Results: Among 22 cohort studies identified, 14 (64%) reported weak to strong positive associations between alcohol and liver cancer risk, 3 (14%) reported no association and five (23%) reported weak to moderate inverse associations; such inverse associations were found mostly in follow-up studies of patients with chronic liver disease (particularly, cirrhotic patients), yet recent studies on patients with chronic hepatitis C presented fairly consistent positive associations. Of 24 case–control studies identified, 19 (79%) showed weak to strong positive associations, whereas the remainder demonstrated no association (n = 4) or a moderate inverse association (n = 1).
Conclusion: We conclude that there is ‘convincing’ evidence that alcohol drinking increases the risk of primary liver cancer among the Japanese population.
Key Words: systematic review • epidemiology • alcohol • liver cancer • Japanese
Research group members are listed in the Appendix.