Ethanol stimulates tumor progression and expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in chick embryos.

Background: The mechanisms by which alcohol consumption causes cancer have not been established due to a lack of experimental studies.

Methods: A chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model that bore human fibrosarcoma (HT1080) was used to determine whether the administration of physiologically relevant doses of ethanol could stimulate tumor growth, angiogenesis, metastasis, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in tumors. HT1080 cells were inoculated onto the "upper CAM" on Day 8, saline or ethanol was administrated at a dose of 0.