Liver cirrhosis, tobacco, alcohol, and cancer among blacks.

Attributes of age, tobacco use, and alcohol consumption were studied in order to elucidate their roles in the increased risks of blacks for selected neoplasms. Black cancer patients with and without liver cirrhosis were compared by cancer sites, age, tobacco usage, and alcohol consumption. Subsequently, non-cirrhotic blacks and whites with cancer were characterized on the same variables.Black males with cancer and liver cirrhosis, when compared with similar males without liver cirrhosis, were significantly younger and had more than triple the frequencies of esophageal and hepatic cancers but less than one fourth the frequencies of gastric and prostatic cancers. Cirrhotic patients were rarely nondrinkers but drank whiskey excessively. Noncirrhotic blacks, when compared with noncirrhotic whites, had very high risks of liver, stomach, and prostate cancers and smoked less heavily but drank significantly more whiskey. Hence, factors associated with patterns of smoking cigarettes and drinking, especially whiskey, if not these habits themselves, are probably related to the increased risks of blacks for stomach and liver cancers when compared with non-cirrhotic whites and for esophageal and hepatic cancers when compared with non-cirrhotic blacks.