Main description:

The World Health Organization has identified chronic alcohol consumption as one of the top ten risk factors for worldwide burden of disease. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has identified alcohol as carcinogenic to humans, including cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract, colon, liver and breast. Alcohol's actions may be direct e.g. effects on retinoic acid and one-carbon metabolism, or indirect, through metabolites such as acetaldehyde and reactive oxygen species or through various signaling pathways that influence cell cycle and apoptosis that may contribute to carcinogenesis. This report reviews the state of the art in alcohol-related cancer research in ten chapters.

Contents:

Alcohol as a Human Carcinogen.- Overview of Tumorigenesis.- Alcohol and Cancer Epidemiology.- Alcohol Metabolism and Its Implications for Cancer.- Epigenetics, Alcohol, and Cancer.- Alcohol, Cancer Genes, and Signaling Pathways.- Alcohol, Retinoic Acid, and Cancer.- Alcohol, Altered Protein Homeostasis, and Cancer.- Alcohol and the Inflammatory Function of Immune Cells in Cancer Development.- Immune Surveillance and Tumor Evasion.- Stem Cells and Alcohol-related Cancers.- Epilogue, Consensus Recommendations - Alcohol and Cancer.