Abstract
This narrative review aims to summarize the current controversy on the balance between ethanol and phytochemicals in wine, focusing on light drinking and oral cancer. Extensive literature search included PUBMED and EMBASE databases to identify in human studies and systematic reviews (up to March 2015), which contributed to elucidate this issue. Independently from the type of beverage, meta-analyses considering light drinking (≤1 drinks/day or ≤12.5 g/day of ethanol) reported relative risks (RR) for oral, oro-pharyngeal, or upper aero-digestive tract cancers, ranging from 1.0 to 1.3. One meta-analysis measured the overall wine-specific RR, which corresponded to 2.1. Although little evidence exists on light wine intake, phytochemicals seem not to affect oral cancer risk, being probably present below the effective dosages and/or due to their low bioavailability. As expected, the risk of oral cancer, even in light drinking conditions, increases when associated with smoking habit and high-risk genotypes of alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenases.
Highlights
In 2012, oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) ranked as the 12th most common malignancy in Europe, affecting more than 73,000 European citizens of both sexes [1,2]
Considering only the in-human studies, this review aims to analyze the putative roles of these wine components on oral cancer risk, focusing on the light drinking
Besides the importance of drinking patterns, a growing body of evidence supports dietary habits may affect the risk of developing oral cancer and, high fruit and vegetable consumption has been associated with a reduced risk of cancer [32]
Summary
In 2012, oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) ranked as the 12th most common malignancy in Europe, affecting more than 73,000 European citizens of both sexes [1,2]. Causally associated with ethanol intake, when consumed above the recommended upper limits of two drinks a day (30 g of ethanol/day) in men, and one drink a day (15 g of ethanol/day) in women [13,14] These findings are indirectly supported by investigations on the role of alcohol-related cirrhosis as risk factor for hepatic cancer [5], and for oral cancer, mainly in patients with potentially malignant oral disorders [15]. Considering only the in-human studies, this review aims to analyze the putative roles of these wine components on oral cancer risk, focusing on the light drinking This survey goes into moderate and heavy alcohol drinking as well, for comparison and for supporting the dose-dependent risk of disease and mortality. The authors independently carried out a comprehensive literature search on PUBMED and EMBASE databases, in order to identify systematic reviews and clinical studies on these issues, published in English, up to March 2015
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