Bendinelli B, Palli D, Assedi M, et al. - In the Italian section of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, researchers assessed the role of alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking in modulating rectal cancer (Rc) risk and estimated the attributable fraction in a Mediterranean population. Forty-five thousand five hundred fifty-three healthy adults (31,252 women) were selected and provided information about lifestyle and dietary habits. One hundred fifty-four incident RC cases were identified during 14.0 years of median follow-up. In multivariate models, there has been a rise in RC risk among individuals drinking more than 3 drinks per day, overall, and in females, relative to drinkers below 1 drink/day. The research supports a strategy to avoid a significant proportion of cases of RC by incorporating decreases in alcohol consumption with cigarette smoking.