A new study conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Bordeaux University Hospital, France, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has found that individuals with alcohol dependence who undergo rehabilitation or maintain abstinence experience significantly lower risks of developing alcohol-associated cancers. The article, entitled Alcohol rehabilitation and cancer risk: a nationwide hospital cohort study in France was published today in Lancet Public Health. It is the largest of its kind to provide evidence linking reduced or ceased alcohol consumption with a decreased risk of all alcohol-attributable cancers, including liver and throat cancers.
The nationwide retrospective cohort study analyzed data from more than 24 million French people, all adults residing in mainland France who were discharged from hospital between 2018 and 2021. The researchers found that approximately 6.3 percent of men and 1.
6 percent of women had alcohol dependence, which was strongly associated with alcohol-related cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma, as well as oral, pharyngeal, laryngeal, esophageal, and colorectal cancers, in both sexes. However, they also found that that rehabilitation treatment or a history of abstinence was associated with significantly lower risks compared to alcohol dependence without rehabilitation or abstinence. This underscores the effectiveness of treatment strategies in combating cancer risks linked to alcohol dependence.
The research team.
