Pooled data from seven studies on diet and cancer provide weak evidence of a link between alcohol consumption and lung cancer risk -- mainly confined to men who never smoked.Although smoking is the main cause of lung cancer, not much is known about risk factors for nonsmokers, and modifying factors for smokers, Dr. Jo L. Freudenheim from the State University of New York at Buffalo and colleagues explain in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.They note that mortality due to lung cancer is high in studies of alcoholics, “but the greater risk may be explained, in part or entirely, by the fact that the people in these populations were also more likely to smoke."In their analyses, Freudenheim’s team made every effort to separate the effect of smoking from that of alcohol on lung cancer risk.
