Grant: Project Grant

Alcohol is a well-established carcinogen, as identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF). However, these causality assessments are now outdated. At the time of their evaluations, the evidence linking alcohol consumption to several cancers was considered inconclusive. Meanwhile, the population-level burden of alcohol-attributable cancer has been estimated to be substantial. To reduce this burden, evidence-based alcohol policies and interventions are urgently needed. To address these public health issues, this study will pursue four key aims: 1) Update the 2012 IARC causality evaluations, perform new evaluations for cancer sites where the evidence was not conclusive. 2) Quantify the risk relationship between alcohol consumption and cancer incidence and mortality. 3) Estimate the cancer burden due to alcohol at the global level, nationally and for Canada and sub-nationally, from 2000 to 2025. 4) Model the impact of alcohol policies on cancer incidence and mortality and develop an interactive tool to explore the impacts of policy change. To achieve these aims, we will conduct a systematic review of animal, epidemiological, and mechanistic studies, following international best practices to ensure transparency and scientific rigor. Causality evaluations will be guided by IARC's hazard identification framework. We will also model the impact of public health policies on alcohol-related cancer outcomes across Canadian provinces and territories and at the international level. This will be done using a comparative risk assessment methodology, incorporating alcohol sales data, population surveys, and data from the Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation (CAPE) project. Led by a multidisciplinary team of experts in mechanistic, epidemiology, and public health policy research this project will strengthen the scientific evidence base on alcohol and cancer and inform more effective cancer prevention strategies.