Kaplan–Meier survival curves of overall survival (A), disease‐specific survival (B), and disease‐free survival (C) for all 429 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. (A) Kaplan–Meier survival curve of overall survival. Heavy (>46 g ethanol/day; n = 147) and moderate (23–46 g ethanol/day; n = 89) alcohol consumption were significantly associated with poorer survival compared with non‐drinking (hazard ratio [HR], 1.92; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02–3.91, P = 0.044; and HR, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.02–3.59, P = 0.042, respectively). (B) Kaplan–Meier survival curve of disease‐specific survival. Heavy and moderate alcohol consumption were significantly associated with poorer survival than non‐drinking (HR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.02–4.40, P = 0.043; and HR, 1.96; 95% CI, 0.99–3.86, P = 0.053, respectively). (C) Kaplan–Meier survival curve of disease‐free survival. Heavy and moderate alcohol consumption were significantly associated with poorer survival than non‐drinking (HR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.16–2.91, P = 0.010; and HR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.14–3.08, P = 0.014, respectively).