Whole-life beer consumption and a quantitative measurement of several dietary micronutrients consumed in adult life were obtained from the dietary and alcohol data of the case-control arm of the population-based Melbourne Colorectal Cancer Study. There was a statistically significant risk, adjusted for other established risk factors, among habitual beer drinkers (AOR 1.75, 95% CI 1.28–2.41) with a significant positive dose-response effect (AOR trend 1.34, 95% CI 1.16–1.55). Among beer consumers the data were interpreted as showing an attenuation of this risk with consumption of the four micronutrients involved in methylation: folate, methionine, vitamins B6 and B12, and the four micronutrients examined with antioxidant properties: selenium, vitamins E, C, and lycopene. The strongest effects were noted with vitamins E, C, and lycopene, and the weakest with methionine and selenium. Whilst not condoning excessive beer drinking, the regular consumption of foods rich in these micronutrients may provide a simple and harmless preventative strategy among persistent habitual beer drinkers and deserves further study with larger study numbers. 1. Introduction Regular beer drinking is a risk factor for cancer of the rectum [1–5]. Kune and colleagues were the first to report in 1987 that this risk was annulled by a high consumption of vitamin-C-containing foods [6], and subsequently several studies indicated that the alcohol risk was significantly attenuated by a high folate and possibly high methionine intake [7–10]. The objective of this study was to assess whether the dietary micronutrients involved in one-carbon metabolism, namely, folate, methionine, vitamins B6 and B12, and micronutrients with antioxidant properties particularly vitamin C, vitamin E, lycopene, and selenium, might counteract the elevated risk of rectal cancer among habitual beer drinkers. 2. Materials and Methods The data were obtained from the case-control arm of the population-based Melbourne Colorectal Cancer Study [11]. The principal alcohol findings were a significant risk for rectal cancer among habitual beer drinkers, a risk which was annulled by a high consumption of vitamin-C-containing foods [6]. The main dietary findings were published in 1987 [12]. The micronutrient analysis of colorectal cancer risk we reported in 2006 [13], but this did not include the risks for rectal cancer associated with micronutrient intake among beer drinkers, therefore the data here represent unpublished material. The study included 323 incident cases of rectal cancer and 727 age/sex frequency matched
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