Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42031341›Full record

Observational studyThe American journal of clinical nutrition2026

Alcohol consumption and molecular subtypes of colorectal cancer: pooled observational and Mendelian randomization analyses.

Christos V Chalitsios, Wing Ching Chan, Georgios Markozannes, Elom K Aglago, Sonja I Berndt, Daniel D Buchanan, Peter T Campbell, Yin Cao, Niki Dimou, David A Drew and 37 more

Abstract readObservational Study
In one paragraph

Observational study in The American journal of clinical nutrition, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

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3 · Its place in the literature

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0 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

47 authors.

Christos V ChalitsiosDepartment of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece. Electronic address: christos.chalitsios@uoi.gr.
Wing Ching ChanDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Georgios MarkozannesDepartment of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Elom K AglagoDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Sonja I BerndtDivision of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
Daniel D BuchananColorectal Oncogenomics Group, Department of Clinical Pathology, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia; University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia; Genomic Medicine and Family Cancer Clinic, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Australia.
Peter T CampbellDepartment of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, United States.
Yin CaoDivision of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, United States; Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States; Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, United States.
Niki DimouNutrition and Metabolism Branch, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France.
David A DrewDivision of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Amy J FrenchDivision of Laboratory Genetics, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States.
Steven GallingerLunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Peter GeorgesonColorectal Oncogenomics Group, Department of Clinical Pathology, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia; University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
Marios GiannakisDepartment of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, United States; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, United States.
Stephen B GruberPublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States.
Marc J GunterDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom; Nutrition and Metabolism Branch, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France.
Tabitha A HarrisonPublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States.
Hermann BrennerDivision of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
Michael HoffmeisterDivision of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
Mary-Jose Urruchúa-RodríguezDivision of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Medical Faculty, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Li HsuPublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States; Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
Wen-Yi HuangDivision of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States.
Meredith Aj HullarPublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States.
Jeroen R HuyghePublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States.
Mark A JenkinsCentre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Harindra JayasekaraCentre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; Cancer Epidemiology Division, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
Victor MorenoUnit of Biomarkers and Susceptibility, Oncology Data Analytics Program, Catalan Institute of Oncology, L'Hospitalet del Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; ONCOBELL Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain; Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, University of Barcelona, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain.
Christina C NewtonDepartment of Population Science, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Jonathan A NowakProgram in MPE Molecular Pathological Epidemiology, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Mireia Obón-SantacanaUnit of Biomarkers and Susceptibility, Oncology Data Analytics Program, Catalan Institute of Oncology, L'Hospitalet del Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; ONCOBELL Program, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain.
Shuji OginoBroad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, United States; Program in MPE Molecular Pathological Epidemiology, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States; Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Andrew J PellattDepartment of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Anita PeoplesDepartment of Population Science, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Conghui QuPublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States.
Stephanie L SchmitGenomic Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States; Population and Cancer Prevention Program, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cleveland, OH, United States.
Robert S SteinfelderPublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States.
Wei SunPublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States.
Claire E ThomasPublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States.
Amanda E TolandDepartment of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States.
Quang M TrinhOntario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Tomotaka UgaiProgram in MPE Molecular Pathological Epidemiology, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States.
Caroline Y UmDepartment of Population Science, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, United States.
Bethany Van GuelpenDepartment of Diagnostics and Intervention, Oncology Unit, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden; Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
Syed H ZaidiOntario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Ulrike PetersPublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States; Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, WA, United States.
Amanda I PhippsPublic Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, United States; Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, WA, United States.
Konstantinos K TsilidisDepartment of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.

Funding

Translational Bioimaging Core Shared ResourceP30CA015704 · NCI · FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER · PI Eric Collisson · 1985 to 2026
$296.4M
NCI NIH HHS P30 CA015704
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAlcohol consumption is associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, yet its association with distinct molecular subtypes remains unclear. Clarifying this could reveal insights into alcohol's carcinogenic mechanisms.

objectivesWe examined the association between alcohol consumption and the risk of CRC subtypes defined by individual tumor markers (and marker combinations), namely microsatellite instability (MSI) status, CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) status, BRAF, and KRAS mutations.

methodsPooled observational (n

resultsAmong drinkers, each additional 14 g/d of alcohol was associated with a 10% higher CRC risk [odds ratio (OR) = 1.10; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07, 1.13], but this association was primarily driven by heavy alcohol consumption (>28 g/d). Including nondrinkers revealed a J-shaped association (P-nonlinearity = 0.002). The associations with higher alcohol consumption were stronger in males compared with females. No significant heterogeneity was observed across MSI, CIMP, BRAF, or KRAS-defined subtypes. All associations were similar across smoking status, folate intake, tumor anatomical site, study design, early/late-onset CRC, and across individual studies (P-heterogeneity > 0.05). MR analyses supported that higher genetically predicted alcohol consumption was associated with CRC risk (OR

conclusionsHeavy alcohol consumption may initiate colorectal carcinogenesis through mechanisms that operate across all examined molecular pathways for CRC. Although the largest available data were used, power is lower for subtype heterogeneity analyses, and modest interaction effects cannot be excluded.

Indexed as

Alcohol DrinkingColorectal NeoplasmsAgedBiomarkers, TumorCpG IslandsDNA MethylationFemaleGenome-Wide Association StudyHumansMaleMendelian Randomization AnalysisMicrosatellite InstabilityMiddle AgedMutationProto-Oncogene Proteins B-rafProto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras)Biomarkers, TumorBRAF protein, humanKRAS protein, humanProto-Oncogene Proteins B-rafProto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras)alcoholCCFRcolorectal cancerGECCOmolecular epidemiologysubtypes

Identifiers

PMID42031341
PMCPMC13269635

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.