MATE DRINKING AND RISK OF LUNG-CANCER IN MALES - A CASE-CONTROL STUDYFROM URUGUAY

During the period from January 1988 to December 1994, a case-control s tudy that included 497 cases of lung cancer and 497 controls was carri ed out at the Institute de Oncologia, Montevideo, Uruguay, to evaluate the relationship between the drinking of mate (a local tea prepared w ith infusions of the herb Ilex paraguariensis) and the risk of lung ca ncer in men, Mate drinking has been associated with risk of most upper -aerodigestive tract cancers, After adjusting for major covariates, in cluding pack-years of cigarette smoking, the amount of mate was associ ated with a 1.6-fold increase in risk for heavy drinkers, compared wit h light drinkers, with a significant dose-response pattern, When the a nalysis was pet-formed by cell type, small cell lung cancer showed a s ignificant increase in relative risk for mate amount (odds ratio, 2.9; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-6.2) and mate duration (odds ratio, 3.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.3-9.9), On the other hand, pulmonary adeno carcinoma was not associated with mate drinking, Possible reasons for these results are discussed, and areas for future research are suggest ed.