Increased cancer risk among Swedish female alcoholics

We evaluated site-specific cancer risks in alcoholic women. We identified 15,508 alcoholic women from the records of the Temperance Boards in Sweden and obtained a comparison group by selecting for each alcoholic woman one female individual matched for region and day of birth. We obtained incidence data from the Swedish Cancer Registry. We found an increased relative risk (RR) for any cancer [RR = 1.6; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.5-1.8]; site-specific risks were increased for tongue (RR = 8.5; 95% CI = 2.0-37), mouth (RR = 12; 95% CI = 1.6-92), tonsil (RR = 11; 95% CI = 1.4-85), hypopharynx (RR = 9.0; 95% CI = 1.1-71), larynx (RR = 7.0; 95% CI = 0.9-57), liver (RR = 4.6; 95% CI = 1.8-12), pancreas (RR = 2.7; 95% CI = 1.6-4.6), lung (RR = 5.0; 95% CI = 3.3-7.5), breast (RR = 1.4; 95% CI = 1.2-1.7), cervix uteri (RR = 3.9; 95% CI = 2.8-5.4), and vulva, vagina, and unspecified female genital organs (RR = 4.0; 95% CI = 1.3-12). We found a decreased risk for malignant melanoma of the skin (RR = 0.5; 95% CI = 0.3-1.0). Since this was a register study, the results may be confounded by differences in smoking, dietary habits, and/or other factors in the cohort of alcoholic women and the comparison group.