Hi --

We asked Barry's MO at Hopkins about drinking since his GP had (in the past) recommended a Mediterranean-type diet to him, with its small glasses of red wine every few days. She said, "well, I like THAT prescription..." In other words, this sort of moderate drinking was OK for him. (His was an HPV+ cancer.)

As for HPV+ cancers -- the paper by D'Souza et al in May of this year found no correlation between smoking and drinking and development of HPV+ oral cancer -- & we now know this is a biologically different cancer from that related to excessive alcohol intake and/or smoking.

One the other hand, alcohol is probably not great for those who had a non-HPV cancer -- at least, more than the very occasional indulgence. Thus the difference in doctor's recommendations.

Gail