Because these alleles are allocated at birth and are independent of other lifestyle factors (such as smoking), they can be used as a proxy for alcohol intake, to assess how alcohol consumption affects disease risks.
The study team used the data and combined it with questionnaires about drinking habits completed by participants at recruitment and subsequent follow-up visits.
The participants were tracked for a median period of 11 years through linkage to health insurance records and death registers.
Key findings of the study were that men who drank very little alcohol had a 31 percent lower risk of developing cancers that have previously been linked to alcohol.
Lead researcher Doctor Pek Kei from Oxford Population Health said: “These findings indicate that alcohol directly causes several types of cancer, and that these risks may be increased further in people with inherited low alcohol tolerability who cannot properly metabolise alcohol.”
Senior researcher Doctor Iona Millwood also from Oxford Population Health added: “Our study reinforces the need to lower population levels of alcohol consumption for cancer prevention.”
