Ethanol versus Phytochemicals in Wine: Oral Cancer Risk in a Light Drinking Perspective

Abstract

This narrative review aims to summarize the current controversy on the balance between ethanol and phytochemicals in wine, focusing on light drinking and oral cancer. Extensive literature search included PUBMED and EMBASE databases to identify in human studies and systematic reviews (up to March 2015), which contributed to elucidate this issue. Independently from the type of beverage, meta-analyses considering light drinking (≤1 drinks/day or ≤12.5 g/day of ethanol) reported relative risks (RR) for oral, oro-pharyngeal, or upper aero-digestive tract cancers, ranging from 1.0 to 1.3. One meta-analysis measured the overall wine-specific RR, which corresponded to 2.1. Although little evidence exists on light wine intake, phytochemicals seem not to affect oral cancer risk, being probably present below the effective dosages and/or due to their low bioavailability. As expected, the risk of oral cancer, even in light drinking conditions, increases when associated with smoking habit and high-risk genotypes of alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenases.

Expressional and Functional Characterization of Intracellular pH Regulators and Effects of Ethanol in Human Oral Epidermoid Carcinoma Cells

“…Previous studies indicate that alcohol induced DNA damage and oxidative stress are associated with cancer risk, and promoted tumor metastasis [34][35][36]. According to epidemiological evidence, alcohol might play a causative role in developing oral cancer [37][38][39]. The risk of oral cancer demonstrates strong dose-dependent of alcohol: from 1.75 to 6.01 with increased amounts of alcohol drinking from 25 g/day to 100 g/day, respectively [37,39,40].…”

Effect of different presentations of resveratrol on cell proliferation and epitelial thickness of the oral mucosa of wistar rats

“…It is known that resveratrol is mostly found in grape skin, so its quantity and quality depend on two factors: cultivation (grape type, ripening, climate, soil, postharvest handling) and processing and manufacturing parameters. Winemaking has been described as a careful and elaborate process that has profound effects on the amount of resveratrol present in the final product 9,10,12,18 . Regarding the action of ethanol, studies conducted by our group have shown that the topical and intermittent exposure to alcohol causes an increase only in cellular desquamation, while the continuous ingestion of alcohol is associated with an increase in cellular proliferation.…”

“…Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze the effect of different presentations of resveratrol on cell proliferation and epithelial thickness of the oral mucosa of Wistar rats 11,12 .…”

Computer‐assisted analysis of tongue thickness of golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) following topical chronic exposure to distilled alcoholic beverages

“…Just over 40% of the adult population worldwide consumes alcohol, with a mean intake per individual of 17.1 L annually (Shield et al., ). Several studies point to the association between alcohol consumption and cancer (Shivappa et al., ; Varoni, Lodi, & Iriti, ). Alcohol use has been associated with changes in the membrane of epithelial cells, cell proliferation and the mechanisms responsible for the preservation of intercellular fluid as well as the inhibition of the synthesis of proteins and nucleic acids (Slomiany, Piotrowski, Piotrowski, & Slomiany, ).…”