Alcohol Consumption and Melanoma in a Prospective US Cohort Study: Results from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study.

Background: Alcohol consumption is a modifiable lifestyle factor linked with multiple forms of cancer. There is a relative paucity of prospective data on the associations between alcohol consumption and melanoma subtypes.

Objective: In this study, we investigated the associations of total alcohol consumption and different types of alcoholic beverages on the risk of malignant melanoma (MM) and melanoma in situ (MIS) among 469,828 participants of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study.

Methods: Alcoholic beverage consumption, to include beer, wine, and liquor consumption, in the past year was assessed at baseline by questionnaire and defined as a categorical variable. Total melanoma included MM and MIS. Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regressions were used to calculate the hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

Results: During 6,297,881 person years of follow-up with a median of 15.5 years, 5,034 cases of MM and 3,284 cases of MIS were identified. Higher total alcohol consumption was associated with an elevated risk of melanoma; the HR for total melanoma was 1.17 (95% CI: 1.07-1.28) for those who consumed >3 drinks/day compared to non-drinkers (P_trend<0.001). Similar associations were observed for MM (HR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.02-1.29; P_trend<0.006) and MIS (HR: 1.21, 95% CI: 1.04-1.40; P_trend<0.002). Beer consumption of >0-1 drinks/day was associated with higher risks of total melanoma (HR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.07-1.18) and MIS (HR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.03-1.21). Wine consumers demonstrated evidence of a higher risk of total melanoma and MIS for both >0-1 and >1 drinks/day (P_trend<0.001). Liquor consumption was associated with increasing risks of total melanoma, MM, and MIS (P_trend<0.001) in both drinking groups CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that alcohol consumption was associated with an increased risk of melanoma, including both MM and MIS.