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The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on April 15, 2009
The European Journal of Public Health 2009 19(4):389-393; doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckp049
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

Alcohol-related Problems

Does binge drinking increase the risk of lung cancer: results from the Findrink study

Adetunji T. Toriola1, Sudhir Kurl2, Jari A. Laukkanen2,3 and Jussi Kauhanen2,4

1 National Institute for Health and Welfare, Oulu, Finland
2 Research Institute of Public Health, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland
3 Lapland Central Hospital, Rovaniemi, Finland
4 School of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland

Correspondence: Dr Adetunji T. Toriola, National Institute for Health and Welfare, PO Box 310, FIN-90101, Oulu, Finland, tel: +35 84 429 295 26, fax: +35 88 537 6251, e-mail: Adetunji.toriola{at}uta.fi

Received August 8, 2008 , accepted March 23, 2009

Background: There are controversies on the role of alcohol in lung cancer but no studies have examined the role of alcohol consumption patterns. We examined the association between binge drinking and lung cancer. Methods: Prospective population based study of 2267 middle aged men from Finland without a history of lung cancer at baseline. Results: There were 65 cases of lung cancer during an average follow-up of 16.7 years. The relative risk (RR) of lung cancer for binge drinkers was 1.89 (95% CI 1.10–3.20) after adjusting for age, examination year, family history of cancer, smoking, socio-economic status (SES), leisure-time physical activity and body mass index (BMI). No increased risk was observed among non-smoking binge drinkers, RR 1.48 (95% CI 0.89–2.47). Binge drinking smokers had increased risks of lung cancer in all categories of daily smoking compared with non-binge drinking smokers. The RR were 2.70 (95% CI 1.61–4.53), 2.35 (95% CI 1.38–3.96) and 2.24 (95% CI 1.29–3.80) for those who smoked 1–19, 20–29 and ≥30/day, respectively. Conclusion: Binge drinking is not associated with an increased risk of lung cancer among non-smokers but among smokers, it is associated with an increased risk irrespective of the number of cigarettes smoked daily. Even though the number of lung cancer cases among non-smokers was relatively small, the fact that the increased risk was limited to only smokers means that residual confounding by smoking may play a role. Larger studies are needed to clarify this association.

Keywords: alcohol, binge drinking, cohort study, drinking pattern, lung cancer


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