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Meta-Analysis
. 2023 Jul;30(4):519-530.
doi: 10.1007/s12282-023-01455-4. Epub 2023 Apr 8.

Alcohol consumption and breast cancer prognosis after breast cancer diagnosis: a systematic review and meta‑analysis of the Japanese Breast Cancer Society Clinical Practice Guideline, 2022 edition

Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Alcohol consumption and breast cancer prognosis after breast cancer diagnosis: a systematic review and meta‑analysis of the Japanese Breast Cancer Society Clinical Practice Guideline, 2022 edition

Tsunehisa Nomura et al. Breast Cancer. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Alcohol consumption is internationally recognized as one of the compelling risk factors for breast cancer, but it does not necessarily correlate with the prognosis of breast cancer patients. Alcohol consumption in breast cancer patients was addressed in the 2022 Breast Cancer Clinical Practice Guidelines. A systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies on alcohol consumption and breast cancer recurrence, breast cancer-related mortality, all-cause mortality, and cardiovascular disease mortality in breast cancer patients was performed. The PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Ichushi-Web databases were searched for relevant publications reporting cohort or case-control studies published until March 2021. A total of 33 studies (32 cohort studies and 1 case-control study) met the eligibility criteria; 4638 cases of recurrence, 12,209 cases of breast cancer-specific mortality, and 21,945 cases of all-cause mortality were observed. With regard to breast cancer recurrence, 7 studies assessed pre-diagnosis alcohol consumption (relative risk (RR) 1.02, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.77-1.37, p = 0.88) and 3 studies assessed post-diagnosis alcohol consumption (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.85-1.10, p = 0.57), and no significant increase or decrease in risk was observed. With regard to breast cancer-related mortality, 19 studies assessed pre-diagnosis alcohol consumption (RR 1.02, 95% CI 0.93-1.11, p = 0.69), 9 studies assessed post-diagnosis alcohol consumption (RR 0.96, 95% CI 0.77-1.19, p = 0.70), and no significant increase or decrease in risk was observed. With regard to all-cause mortality, 18 studies assessed pre-diagnosis alcohol consumption (RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.82-0.99, p = 0.02), 8 studies assessed post-diagnosis alcohol consumption (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.74-1.02, p = 0.08), and pre-diagnosis alcohol consumption was associated with a significantly decreased risk. With regard to cardiovascular disease mortality and alcohol consumption, 2 studies assessed it, and the RRwas 0.47 (95% CI 0.28-0.79, p = 0.005), showing that alcohol consumption was associated with a significantly decreased risk. The limitations of this study are that drinking status was mainly based on a questionnaire survey, which is somewhat inaccurate and has many confounding factors, and the cut-off value for the maximum alcohol intake in many studies was low, and it is possible that the actual intake was only an appropriate amount. In many countries, a standard drinking amount is set, and wise decisions are required.

Keywords: Alcohol consumption; Breast cancer; Meta-analysis; Systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Results of the search
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Forest plots of the hazard ratio for alcohol intake and breast cancer recurrence. A Pre-diagnosis; B post-diagnosis
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Forest plots of the hazard ratio for alcohol intake and breast cancer-related morality. A Pre-diagnosis; B post-diagnosis; C ER-positive cases; D ER-negative cases
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Forest plots of the hazard ratio for alcohol intake and all-cause mortality. A Pre-diagnosis; B post-diagnosis; C ER-positive cases; D ER-negative cases
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Forest plots of the hazard ratio for alcohol intake and cardiovascular disease mortality

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