PURPOSE: To investigate the association between cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and esophageal adenocarcinoma survival, including stratified analysis by selected prognostic biomarkers.

METHODS: A population-representative sample of 130 esophageal adenocarcinoma patients (n = 130) treated at the Northern Ireland Cancer Centre between 2004 and 2012. Cox proportional hazards models were applied to evaluate associations between smoking status, alcohol intake, and survival. Secondary analyses investigated these associations across categories of p53, HER2, CD8, and GLUT-1 biomarker expression.

RESULTS: In esophageal adenocarcinoma patients, there was a significantly increased risk of cancer-specific mortality in ever, compared to never, alcohol drinkers in unadjusted (HR 1.96 95% CI 1.13-3.38) but not adjusted (HR 1.70 95% CI 0.95-3.04) analysis. This increased risk of death observed for alcohol consumers was more evident in patients with normal p53 expression, GLUT-1 positive or CD-8 positive tumors. There were no significant associations between survival and smoking status in esophageal adenocarcinoma patients.

CONCLUSIONS: In esophageal adenocarcinoma patients, cigarette smoking or alcohol consumption was not associated with a significant difference in survival in comparison with never smokers and never drinkers in fully adjusted analysis. However, in some biomarker-selected subgroups, ever-alcohol consumption was associated with a worsened survival in comparison with never drinkers. Larger studies are needed to investigate these findings, as these lifestyle habits may not only be linked to cancer risk but also cancer survival.