Alcohol and prostate cancer: identifying potentially modifiable lifestyle-related causes of cancer by means of Mendelian randomisation

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Alcohol has been linked to several cancers, but the picture is still unclear for prostate cancer. We aim to study the risk of prostate cancer in men with different alcohol intakes, as cutting down on alcohol might prevent this disease. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men 50+ in the UK, and it is increasing as we live longer. Even if we anticipate that the effect of alcohol might be small, we are interested in finding out more because alcohol consumption and prostate cancer are both on the rise, affecting many of us, and drinking behaviours could be targeted and modified. Alcohol is difficult to study because we forget how much we have drunk over the years, and because heavy drinkers also tend to smoke and be generally less healthy. Instead of asking men directly, we will try to classify heavy/moderate/light drinkers, based on some of their genes that are believed to influence their drinking or affect the way their body gets rid of alcohol. Comparing men with and without prostate cancer will reveal what link there is with alcohol.