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Alcohol intake and risk of glioma: results from three prospective cohort studies

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Abstract

Purpose

The association between alcohol intake and glioma remains unclear. We evaluated the association between alcohol intake and incidence of glioma in three large, prospective cohort studies with repeated alcohol assessments.

Methods

We harnessed data from three studies with repeat alcohol assessment to compute hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for glioma by overall alcohol intake and intake from specific beverages using Cox proportional hazards regression, adjusted for age, cohort, body mass index, smoking status, and caloric intake. Analyses were conducted separately for glioma overall and for glioblastoma (GBM).

Results

We confirmed 554 incident glioma cases (362 GBM) among 237,505 participants with 6,216,378 person-years of follow up. Cumulative average alcohol intake was associated with reduced risk of glioma (HR = 0.75, 95%CI:0.56–0.99 comparing > 8–15 to ≤ 0.5 g/d; HR = 0.71, 95%CI:0.53–0.96 comparing > 15 g/d to ≤ 0.5 g/d). When stratified by sex, for the same comparisons, the HRs for men were 0.57 (95%CI:0.36–0.89) and 0.79 (0.53–1.16), and for women 0.90 (95%CI:0.62–1.30) and 0.62, 95%CI:0.39–0.97. Results were consistent when examining cumulative average, baseline, and recent intake, and with a 4 year lag.

Conclusion

These results provide evidence against a positive association between alcohol intake and glioma risk. Alcohol intake was associated with reduced risk of glioma in both men and women.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants and staff of the Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II, and Health Professionals Follow Up Study for their valuable contributions as well as the following state cancer registries for their help: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WY. The authors assume full responsibility for analyses and interpretation of these data.

Funding

National Institutes of Health (NIH) PO1 CA87969, U01 CA167552, UM1 CA186107, U01 CA176726, UM1 CA167552, F30 CA235791 (DJC), the Nutrition Round Table of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute (P30 CA076292).

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Correspondence to David J. Cote.

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The data and code used in this analysis are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Cote, D.J., Samanic, C.M., Smith, T.R. et al. Alcohol intake and risk of glioma: results from three prospective cohort studies. Eur J Epidemiol 36, 965–974 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-021-00800-1

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