Background: In 2008, Singapore Cancer Registry reported lymphoma age-standardized rate (ASR) among males and females was 11.2 per 100,000 and 7.5 per 100,000, respectively with highest incidence observed in Malays, followed Chinese and Indians. Lymphoma incidence rates have been increasing since 1968 (female; ASR: 1.8 per 100,000) and is now the seventh and ninth most common cause of cancer for both men and women, respectively. Lymphoma is widely studied but the cause is yet to be ascertained. Epidemiological studies have shown modifiable behaviour such as heavy alcohol use results in poorer survival across various cancer types in Western population while reviews of tea and coffee consumptions in association with survival are limited. Here, we examined the impact of beverages consumption; alcohol, tea and coffee on lymphoma survival in South East Asia.

Methods: A cohort of 384 lymphoma patients with confirmed histology was recruited from January 2004 to December 2009 and was prospectively followed through till July 2012. At diagnosis, lifestyle characteristics were assessed using a structured questionnaire. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the prognostic value of three beverages; alcohol, tea and coffee, on lymphoma survival adjusted for other clinical prognostic factors; LDH, ECOG, Ann Arbor stage and extra-nodal sites.

Results: The overall median follow-up was 4.2 years (range: 0.02 to 8.3). Among all lymphoma subtypes, the most prevalent was DLBCL, 183 (47.7%) with highest incidence among Chinese, 305 (79.4%) followed by Malay 53 (13.8%) and Indian 24 (6.3%). Alcohol consumptions were associated with poorer survival for all lymphoma (ptrend=0.004) with increasing alcohol use whereas female black tea (plog-rank=0.0063) and coffee (plog-rank=0.018) consumptions had lower risk of death compared to non-drinkers. Full model including alcohol (one or more drinks per day; HR=2.35, 95% CI: 1.38-4.00, p=0.002) and clinical prognostic factors results in c index, 0.75 and 0.72, for overall survival and progression free survival, respectively.

Conclusion: Alcohol consumption in our cohort is predictive of survival while tea and coffee had a weak survival association among lymphoma. This model warrant external validation.

Citation Format: Yin Leng Lee, Kevin Kuang Wei Tay, Soo Yong Tan, Leonard Tan, Richard Hong Hui Quek, Miriam Tao, Tam Cam Ha, Soon Thye Lim. Survival of lymphoma and beverages consumptions; alcohol, tea and coffee: results from National Cancer Centre, Singapore lymphoma cohort. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2539. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2539

©2013 American Association for Cancer Research
2013