Functional duality of ethanol on cancer.

Abstract

A previous study showed that all kinds of wines or ethanol extended lifespan. Skrott et al. described the death-preventing effect of the alcohol-abuse drug disulfiram. However, this effect, perhaps mediated at least in part by overconsumption of ethanol, cannot be excluded. Carcinogenesis can be resulted from the local buildup of HCl. Similar in molecular structure to oxalate, wines or ethanol of all kinds and acetic acid extend lifespan, despite that ethanol is moderately carcinogenic. Cancer cells are likely to overproduce organic acids such as oxalate to counteract strong acids, and the insoluble calcium oxalate is stressful to cells. It is postulated that ethanol inhibits the generation of oxalate, and thus reduces cancer mortality. To confirm this hypothesis, an extensive epidemiological studies can be performed on cancer patients to show that heavy wine drinkers have lower mortality rates than control groups without the use of alcohol-abuse drugs. This experiment will illuminate the positive and negative sides of ethanol intake, and pave the way for establishing better strategies to treat cancer.