Alcohol and cancer risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective Indian studies.

Background: Alcohol increases risk of cancer of oral cavity and pharynx, esophagus, colorectal, liver, larynx, and female breast.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the relationship of alcohol and cancer in India by meta-analysis.

Methods: Systematic Medline searches were performed to identify all the published literature associating alcohol and cancer in India. Initially, we retrieved 1509 studies, but after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, only 29 studies were found eligible for our meta-analysis.

Results: Our meta-analysis shows that alcohol consumption increases the risk of cancer with the odds ratio (OR) of 2.32 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.50-3.47) in case-control studies and relative risk of 1.52 (95% CI: 0.97-2.51) in cohort studies. It also shows that risk of oral cavity cancer increases by two times (OR: 1.92, 95% CI: 1.54-3.96) in the population consuming alcohol. Publication analysis showed that studies included in the meta-analysis had wide variation, suggesting good representation all over the country.

Conclusion: The result from our meta-analysis supports our hypothesis that alcohol consumption increases the risk of cancer, implying immediate cessation of the habit for cancer risk reduction.