The case-control study concerning etiological factors of lung cancer in women, covered 242 cases with histologically confirmed diagnosis of lung cancer and 352 female healthy controls. The results of multivariate analysis, which was adjusted for the effects of smoking exposure as well as other variables, have shown that usual past vodka-drinking women demonstrated significantly higher risk than non-drinking women. Significant dose-response relationships were observed for each histologic type separately. Usual past vodka drinking (at least > or =100 g) significantly increased the risk in all histologic subgroups separately, but the highest risk was observed for small cell carcinoma. For adenocarcinoma, vodka drinking significantly increased risk at the lower (<100 g) and the higher (> or =100 g) levels of drinking. Results of the study confirmed synergistic influence of vodka drinking and cigarette smoking on the risk of developing lung cancer. In the presented study, there was also observed significant influence of usual past vodka drinking on lung cancer risk for lifelong non-smokers.