Alcohol and health: an evolving relationship with a consistent risk for cancer mortality in the United States and the Americas

In a timely analysis, Jani and colleagues used data from the Global Burden of Disease study 2023 (GBD 2023) to describe the increasing burden of alcohol-attributable cancer mortality in the United States (US).1 Their results showed that cancer deaths due to alcohol doubled from 11,361 deaths in 1990 to 23,126 in 2023, with increasing trends across most cancer types, particularly liver and colorectal, and a disproportionately high burden on males aged 55 and older. Despite the overall decline in cancer mortality, the study revealed that alcohol’s contribution to cancer deaths exhibited sex-specific patterns, with an upward trend in males and a modest decline in females,1 a pattern likely mirrored in other high-consumption countries.