Alcohol drinking and laryngeal cancer: Overall and dose-risk relation - A systematic review and meta-analysis

Alcohol drinking is a known risk factor for laryngeal cancer. However, little information is available on the risk associated with light alcohol drinking. To address this issue, we conducted a meta-analysis using two methods: (i) random-effects models with reconstruction of alcohol consumption categories and calculation of risk estimates associated with predefined consumption levels using Hamling method and (ii) random-effects meta-regression models. The PubMed database was searched for all case-control or cohort studies published in the English language on the association between alcohol consumption and risk of laryngeal cancer. Forty studies (38 case-control, 2 cohort) reporting on at least three levels of consumption were included. Overall, alcohol drinking versus non-drinking was associated with an approximately 2-fold increase in risk of laryngeal cancer (RR = 1.90; 95% CI: 1.59-2.28). While light alcohol drinking (=1 drink/day) did not show any significant association with risk of laryngeal cancer (12 studies. RR = 0.88; 95% CI: 0.71-1.08), moderate drinking (>1 to