August 19, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
LONDON – Ladies, do you enjoy a glass of wine? You might want to rethink that as new research shows a light to moderate consumption of alcohol is associated with an increase in the risk of breast cancer.
The new U.S. study by BMJ said a daily glass of wine significantly increases a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer – even for women who have never smoked. The study of 136,000 adults showed light to moderate drinking increased cancer risks in women and in men who smoked. Light drinking was defined as about a five ounce glass of wine per day for women and 24 ounces, or two bottles of beer for men. The study tracked the health of 88,084 women and 47,881 men for approximately 30 years. The study used data from two U.S. studies, the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.
Alcohol consumption has been linked to increased risk of several cancers, including cancer of the colorectum, female breast, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, liver, and esophagus, and possibly to a higher risk of cancer of the stomach, pancreas, lung and gallbladder. It is estimated that alcohol consumption has caused 3.6 percent of all cancers worldwide (1.7 percent in women and 5.2 percent in men), and 3.2 to 3.7 percent of cancer deaths in the United States.
The researchers included multiple factors in their study, including age, ethnicity, weight, family history of cancer, physical activity and diet.
According to the study, an analysis from the United Kingdom’s Million Women Study found that during seven years of follow-up, women who drank seven to 14 drinks per week had a small increase in risk of all cancers compared to those who had two or less drinks per week.
For men the research was less clear. The study showed men who consumed light amounts of alcohol in a week did not have the same risk elevation of contracting cancer, unless tobacco consumption was included.
The study’s lead investigator Yin Cao, a research fellow in the nutrition department at Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health, said the investigation reinforces the notion that heavy drinking of alcohol and smoking should be avoided to prevent the development of cancer.
Jurgen Rehm at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, said in a statement accompanying the study, that people with a history of cancer, especially women, should “consider reducing their alcohol intake to below recommended limits, or even abstaining altogether, given the now well established link between moderate drinking and alcohol related cancers.”
