[The effect of smoking and drinking habit on the process from liver cirrhosis to liver cancer].

A retrospective cohort study of liver cirrhosis cases was carried out. 270 cases of liver cirrhosis which were confirmed histologically from 1972 to 1981 at Juntendo University Hospital, were followed up until the end of 1988. The average observation period for these cases was 74 months or 6.2 years, and we found 141 death cases including 46 of primary liver cancer (PLC). The analysis of survival rate revealed that the smoking group had a slightly higher death rate of PLC than non-smokers, and the ex-smoker group had a much higher survival rate than the continuous smoking group. On the other hand, it was found that the alcohol-drinking group had a much lower death rate of PLC than the non-drinkers group, and that there was no difference of the survival rate among drinkers, non-drinkers and ex-drinkers.