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

酒精与几种癌症有关，但与前列腺癌的关系尚不清楚。我们的目标是研究不同酒精摄入量的男性患前列腺癌的风险，因为减少酒精摄入量可能会预防这种疾病。前列腺癌是英国50岁以上男性中最常见的癌症，而且随着我们寿命的延长，发病率也在增加。即使我们预计酒精的影响可能很小，我们也有兴趣发现更多，因为饮酒和前列腺癌都在上升，影响着我们许多人，饮酒行为可以有针对性和改变。酒精很难研究，因为我们会忘记多年来我们喝了多少酒，而且酗酒者也倾向于吸烟，通常不太健康。我们不会直接询问男性，而是根据他们的一些基因来对重度/中度/轻度饮酒者进行分类，这些基因被认为会影响他们的饮酒或影响他们身体摆脱酒精的方式。将患有前列腺癌和未患前列腺癌的男性进行比较，将揭示前列腺癌与酒精之间的联系。

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.