Cancer is not the same as Cirrhosis.
It's more likely that he smoked and the cancer spread to his liver and by the time it was diagnosed it was too late.

My mom died of colon cancer that metastized to her liver, and she had a drink on her birthday and on holidays. Usually, cancer of the liver doesn't start in the liver, but starts in another organ, in her case the colon, and spreads to the liver. It says his spread from his liver to his lung but I think that is highly unlikely. It most probably was the other way around. Additionally, as it is reported her that Mr. Hutton died six weeks after being admitted to hospital, my mom died 5 weeks after her surgery, at age 66.
So, in answer to your (rather callous & narrow minded) original question, it proba2000bly made no difference how little or how much, if how much, Mr. Hutton drank. His cancer had no correlation to that fact.

He wasn't an alcoholic. I read somewhere when he was filming Eller5b4y Queen he would not drink while filming but when they wrapped filming an episode, he would drink pretty heavily and crew members found him passed out. i have no idea if the story is true, but I did read it somewhere years ago. When Tim came to live with him, he stopped the drinking and played sports with his son.

So did many other celebrities and they didn't all die of liver cancer. So it's hard to say if his cancer was linked to drinking or if he would have had liver cancer even if he hadn't done any drinking at all.
It's sad how so many celebrities ruin their lives by drinking and/or drugs.

Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen

yes he did drink

Liver cancer patients weren't necessarily drunks. In Jim's case, I have no idea. I know very little about his personal life.
~~
JimHutton (1934-79) & ElleryQueen