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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Breast Cancer Rep. 2013 Sep;5(3):10.1007/s12609-013-0114-z. doi: 10.1007/s12609-013-0114-z

Table 2.

Association between Alcohol Intake and Breast Cancer Incidence among Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer

Study Study Popula-
tion		 Years
Recruited		 Age (years) Sample
Size		 Prevalence
of Exposure		 Results Adjustments
Vachon et
al. 2001 [70]		 Multigenerational
breast cancer
families (USA)a 		1944-1952 Not provided 132 high
risk
families		 76% ever
users		 Versus never users, first degree relatives:
 <weekly users RR 1.08, 95% CI 0.72-1.63
 weekly users RR 1.02, 95% CI 0.48-2.18
 daily users RR 2.71, 95% CI 1.33-5.53

Versus never users, second degree relatives:
 <weekly users RR 1.02, 95% CI 0.75-1.40
 weekly users RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.55-1.34
 daily users RR 1.15, 95% CI 0.62-2.13

Versus never users, marry-ins:
 <weekly users RR 1.48, 95% CI 1.01-2.15
 weekly users RR 1.07, 95% CI 0.62-1.84
 daily users RR 0.85, 95% CI 0.40-1.81		 age, smoking,
birth cohort,
familial
clustering, type
of information
(self-
respondents or
surrogate)
Terry et al.
2007 [22]		 Sibling-based
study of high
breast cancer risk
(USA, Canada)b 		1996-2005 Control: mean 47.8
(among unaffected
sisters)		 811
sibling-
sets		 49% current
user among
unaffected
sisters		 Versus non-current users:
 <7 drinks/week OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.73-1.14
 ≥7 drinks/week OR 0.85, 95% CI 0.63-1.14

Versus ADH1B slow genotype (ADH1B*1/1):
 ADH1B*1/2 OR 1.15, 95% CI 0.80-1.66
 ADH1B*2/2 OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.40-2.11

Versus ADH1C fast genotype (ADH1C*1/1):
 ADH1C*1/2 OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.81-1.33
 ADH1C*2/2 OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.71-1.52

No interaction between ADH1B or ADH1C genotypes
and alcohol		 Sibling based
study adjusted
for age
McGuire et
al. 2006 [72]		 BRCA1 or
BRCA2 mutation
carriers (USA,
Canada, and
Australia)c 		1996-2005 <50 804 47% ever
users		 Versus never users:
 users BRCA1 OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.73-1.52
 users BRCA2 OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.45-0.97

Versus never users:
 1-4 g/day BRCA1 OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.34-1.18
 >4 g/day BRCA1 OR 1.14, 95% CI 0.77-1.69
 1-4 g/day BRCA2 OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.22-0.77
 >4 g/day BRCA2 OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.52-1.18
No increased risks by alcohol type (beer, wine, or
spirits)		 age, parity,
family history,
smoking;

Stratified on
age and study
sites
Nkondjock
et al. 2006
[73]		 BRCA1 or BRCA
2mutation
carriers
(Canada)c 		1995 Cases: mean 56.2
Controls: mean 50.9		 137 Not provided Versus lowest tertile of alcohol intake (≤1.7 g/day):
 middle tertile (>1.7-7.9 g/day) OR 0.88, 95% CI
 0.36-2.17
 highest tertile (>7.9 g/day) OR 1.09, 95% CI
 0.44-2.75

No increased risks by alcohol type (beer, wine, or
spirits)		 age, maximum
lifetime BMI,
physical activity
Moorman et
al. 2010 [74]		 Breast cancer
cases only
including 487
BRCA1 or
BCRA2 mutation
carriers (USA
and Australia)e 		2004e BRCA1 carriers:
mean 41.2

BRCA2 carriers:
mean 44.0

Non-carriers: mean
44.1		 1381 72% current
users		 Versus non-carriers:
 BRCA1 Interaction Risk Ratiof 0.65, 95% CI
 0.48-0.90
 BRCA2 Interaction Risk Ratio 0.80, 95% CI
 0.55-1.16		 age, center
Dennis et al.
2010 [75]		 BRCA1 or
BRCA2 mutation
carriers (USA,
Canada, Austria,
Israel, Italy,
Norway, Poland,
and UK)g 		1992-2009 Cases: mean 46.6

Controls: mean 47.0		 1925
matched
pairs		 59% current
users		 Versus non-current users, among BRCA1 carriers:
 0-3 drinks/week OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.67-0.94
 4-9 drinks/week OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.73-1.32
 ≥10 drinks/week OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.33-0.91
 exclusive wine consumers OR 0.64, 95% CI
 0.47-0.87

Versus non-current users, among BRCA2 carriers:
 0-3 drinks/week OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.67-1.41
 4-9 drinks/week OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.67-1.63
 ≥10 drinks/week OR 1.16, 95% CI 0.55-2.45
 exclusive wine consumers OR 1.01, 95% CI
 0.61-1.69		 BMI,
menopausal
status, parity,
HRT use, OC
use, smoking,
ethnicity,
oophorectomy

Matched on
age, BRCA
mutation carrier
status, country
of residence,
ethnicity
(Canada only)
Dennis et al.
2011 [71]		 Breast cancer
cases only
including 10
BRCA1 and 33
BRCA2 carriers
(Canada)h 		2004-2009 BRCA carriers:
mean 48.4

Non-carriers: mean
51.0		 857 85% current
users		 Alcohol dichotomized at median (3 drinks/week):
 BRCA1 case-only ORi 0.79, 95% CI 0.22-2.83
 BRCA2 case-only OR 1.99, 95% CI 0.96-4.11

Wine dichotomized at median (2 drinks/week):
 BRCA1 case-only OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.08-1.81
 BRCA2 case-only OR 1.58, 95% CI 0.78-3.17

Other alcoholj dichotomized at median (0.33
drinks/week):
 BRCA1 case-only OR 2.49, 95% CI 0.64-9.73
 BRCA2 case-only OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.03-4.50		 age
Lecarpentier
et al. 2011
[76]		 BRCA1 or
BRCA2 carriers
(France)k 		2000-2010 Cases: mean 49.4

Controls: mean 41.0		 990 74% ever
users		 Versus never users, among BRCA1 carriersl:
current users (never smokers) HR 1.02, 95% CI
 0.65-1.60
current users (ever smokers) HR 0.90, 95% CI
 0.49-1.68

Versus never users, among BRCA2 carriers:
current users HR 1.21, 95% CI 0.68-2.15		 menopausal
status, parity,
BRCA mutation
carriers status,
number of
years of
smoking
interruption
(when
appropriate)

Abbreviations: ADH, alcohol dehydrogenase; BMI, body mass index; CI, confidence interval; g, grams; HR, hazard ratio; HRT, hormone replacement therapy; OR, odds ratio; RR, relative risk; UK, United Kingdom; USA, United States of America

a

Participants were from the Minnesota Breast Cancer Family registry. The analysis included 426 multigenerational families, of which, 132 families had three or more breast and/or ovarian cancers in the family. The results shown here are for these 132 high risk families.

b

Participants were women from the Breast Cancer Family Registry. There were three sites included, two US sites (New York and California) and the Ontario Cancer Genetic Network in Canada.

c

Participants were non-Hispanic white women from the Breast Cancer Family Registry (includes six research institutions in USA, Canada, and Australia), the Kathleen Cunningham Foundation Consortium for Research into Family Breast Cancer (Australia), and the Ontario Cancer Genetic Network (Canada).

d

Participants were French-Canadian women who were recruited and interviewed since 1995.

e

Participants form the Genetic and Environmental Modifiers of BRCA1/BRCA2 Study (GEMS). The study comprised of 11 centers in USA and Australia. Recruitment for the study began in 2004 and cases were identified both prospectively and retrospectively.

f

Interaction risk ratio is a ratio of risk ratios and can be expressed as the risk ratio of disease given exposure among carriers to the risk ratio of disease given exposure among non-carriers. Since there was no traditional ‘control group’ of unaffected subjects, the main effects were not assessed. The exposed and the unexposed were current alcohol users and non-users, respectively.

g

Participants from 54 centers within 8 countries.

h

Participants were of French-Canadian ancestry.

i

Case-only odds ratio (COR) measures the extent to which the joint effect of genotype (BRCA1 / 2 status) and environment (alcohol consumption) differs from the product of their independent effects. COR>1 indicates supra-multiplicative interaction while COR<1 indicates sub-multiplicative interaction.

j

Includes beer, fortified wine and spirits.

k

Participants were from the GENEPSO study (France).

l

In BRCA1 mutation carriers, there was significant interaction between alcohol and tobacco consumption, so the analysis was stratified based on tobacco and alcohol use.