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YSPH Convenes Experts to Examine Alcohol’s Role in Cancer
Chronic alcohol abuse is considered to be an important risk factor for disease worldwide. In addition, alcohol and its metabolite, acetaldehyde, are recognized as carcinogens that contribute to four percent of cancer deaths. Although scientific studies began to show this association over 100 years ago, the role of alcohol in chronic diseases such as cancer is still not well understood by the public and medical professionals. The 4th International Conference on Alcohol and Cancer was organized by Vasilis Vasiliou, PhD, the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology, sponsored by the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Yale School of Public Health, and supported by an R13 grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The conference, held in Newport, R.I., brought together 75 international scholars with special interest in alcohol and/or cancer.