Alcohol and Cancer

The World Health Organization has identified chronic alcohol consumption as one of the top ten risk factors for worldwide burden of disease. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has identified alcohol as carcinogenic to humans, including cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract, colon, liver and breast. Alcohol’s actions may be direct e.g. effects on retinoic acid and one-carbon metabolism, or indirect, through metabolites such as acetaldehyde and reactive oxygen species or through various signaling pathways that influence cell cycle and apoptosis that may contribute to carcinogenesis. This report reviews the state of the art in alcohol-related cancer research in ten chapters.

Chapter 1. Alcohol as a Human Carcinogen, Philip J. Brooks, Ph.D.Chapter 2. Overview of Tumorigenesis, William C. Dunty, Jr., Ph.D.Chapter 3. Alcohol and Cancer Epidemiology, R Thomas Gentry, Ph.D.Chapter 4. Alcohol Metabolism and Its Implications for Cancer, Gary J. Murray, Ph.D., Philip J. Brooks, Ph.D., and Samir Zakhari, Ph.D.Chapter 5. Epigenetics, Alcohol, and Cancer, Q. Max Guo, Ph.D. and Dale Hereld, M.D., Ph.D.Chapter 6. Alcohol, Cancer Genes, and Signaling Pathways, William C. Dunty, Jr., Ph.D.Chapter 7. Alcohol, Retinoic Acid, and Cancer, Svetlana Radaeva, Ph.D.Chapter 8. Alcohol, Altered Protein Homeostasis, and Cancer, Andras Orosz, Ph.D.Chapter 9. Alcohol and the Inflammatory Function of Immune Cells in Cancer Development, H Joe Wang, Ph.D.Chapter 10. Immune Surveillance and Tumor Evasion, M. Kathy JungChapter 11. Stem Cells and Alcohol-related Cancers, Zhigang Gao, M.D., Q. Max Guo, Ph.D.Chapter 12. Epilogue, Consensus Recommendations - Alcohol and Cancer, Samir Zakhari, Ph.D.