Preventable causes of cancer in Texas by race/ethnicity: Alcohol consumption

Alcohol consumption, especially at levels above 3 drinks/day, causes eight different types of cancer. We aimed to estimate the percentage and number of incident cancer cases diagnosed in Texas in 2015 that were attributable to alcohol consumption. We further examined for differences in these estimates across major population racial/ethnic subgroups. We calculated population-attributable fractions for cancers attributable to alcohol consumption using prevalence estimates of alcohol consumption from the Texas Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and relative risks associated with alcohol consumption from the third World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research expert report. Cancer incidence data were retrieved from the Texas Cancer Registry. We estimated 2.9% of all cancers or 2974 excess cancer cases diagnosed in 2015 in Texans aged ≥25 years were attributable to alcohol consumption. Non-Hispanic Blacks (2.2%) had the lowest proportion of alcohol-attributable cancers. Despite Hispanics having the highest percent of non-consumption of alcohol (65.3%, compared with 45.5% of non-Hispanic Whites), Hispanics had a slightly higher proportion of alcohol-attributable cancers than non-Hispanic Whites (3.0% and 2.7%, respectively). Alcohol consumption is an important target for intervention by public health programs aimed toward addressing cancer prevention. Differences in alcohol-attributable cancer burden among racial/ethnic subgroups should be acknowledged to provide appropriately tailored prevention recommendations.