Objectives: To examine the risk of gastric cancer associated with alcohol consumption and smoking in men and women in Moscow, Russia.
Materials and methods: A case-control study which includes 448 cases and 610 controls was conducted. Cases consisted of patients with newly diagnosed histologically confirmed gastric cancer. Controls were patients admitted during the study period to the hospital with diagnoses other than cancer and/or gastrointestinal diseases. Information on demographic variables, smoking, alcohol consumption and diet was collected from all subjects. Venous blood was drawn from 361 cases and 441 controls. A serological test for Helicobacter pylori immunoglobulin G was performed.
Results: Alcohol consumption, particularly vodka consumption, was found to increase the risk of gastric cancer. In men the effect of hard liquor drinking was stronger for cancer of the cardia (OR = 3.4, CI = 1.2-10.2), while in women the effect was stronger for cancer of sites other than gastric cardia (OR = 1.5, CI = 1.0-2.3). Smoking increased the risk of developing gastric cancer in men, but not in women. In men a dose-response relationship between mean number of cigarettes smoked per day (p = 0.03), pack-years of cigarettes smoked (p = 0.01) and duration of smoking (p = 0.08) and the risk of cancer of gastric cardia was observed. Further statistical analysis revealed interactions between effect of smoking and alcohol consumption and between smoking and H. pylori infection status.
Conclusions: The findings further support the role of alcohol consumption and smoking in the etiology of gastric cancer.