Type of alcoholic beverage and cancer of the upper respiratory and digestive tract.

The study concerns a series of 2443 French men with cancer of the upper respiratory and digestive tract (tongue, buccal cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, larynx supraglottis, larynx glottis and epilarynx). Each patient was examined in the Head and Neck Department of the Institut Curie in Paris. For each of them, data on the consumption of tobacco and alcohol was obtained with specification of the type of alcoholic beverage: wine, beer, cider, aniseed spirit or 'pastis', fortified wines, and whisky. The relationship between the type of alcohol consumed, and the precise location of cancer, was studied using a case-control approach, controlling for the total amount of alcohol consumed. Among mouth cancer cases, a higher proportion of wine consumers was observed. For the 'larynx supraglottis' location, more drinkers of aniseed spirit were found than expected. Among glottic cancer cases, more than expected usually drank whisky or fortified wine. Those results suggest that different alcoholic beverages may not produce the same effect. This could be in accordance with the fact that the discrepancy between France and other countries in the incidence of upper respiratory and digestive tract is greater for some locations (mouth or pharynx) than for others.