Consuming even moderate amounts of alcohol could increase a woman's chance of developing breast cancer or other cancers by 13%, according to a British study scheduled to be published March 4 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the Los Angeles Times reports. Although the risk is not statistically large and previous research indicated that consuming moderate amounts of alcohol could provide cardiovascular benefits to both men and women, the new study finds that the increased cancer risks associated with consuming even one drink a day could outweigh the benefits for women.
For the study, Naomi Allen of the University of Oxford and colleagues analyzed data from 1,280,296 women between ages 45 and 75 who attended breast cancer screening clinics between 1996 and 2001. According to the Times, this sample size represented one-quarter of British women in that age group. The researchers tracked the women for an average of more than seven years and collected cancer data from a national registry. They found that 68,775 women received cancer diagnoses during the study period (Maugh, Los Angeles Times, 2/25). About one-quarter of the women in the study group reported no alcohol use, and nearly all of the remaining women reported consuming fewer than three drinks daily. The women on average reported consuming one drink per day. For the study, the researchers compared cancer rates among women who drank two or fewer drinks per week with women who consumed more (AP/Google, 2/24).
According to the study's findings, consuming one alcoholic beverage per day was associated with 11 additional breast cancer cases per 1,000 women each year. A daily drink also was associated with one additional case of oral and pharynx cancers, one case of rectal cancer, and 0.7 additional cases of esophageal, laryngeal and liver cancers. These findings indicate that a single daily drink could add 15 additional cancer cases to the base rate of 118 cancers per 1,000 women. In addition, two daily drinks could add 30 additional cancer cases and three daily drinks could add 45 cases (Los Angeles Times, 2/25). Based on the study's findings, the researchers estimated that low to moderate alcohol consumption accounts for about 5% of all cancer cases diagnosed among women in the U.S. each year. In addition, about 11% of breast cancer cases, or about 20,000 extra cases per year, might result from alcohol consumption, the researchers said. According to the researchers, all types of alcohol had the same effect on cancer risk.
According to Allen, the "take home message" of the study is that "[i]f you are regularly drinking even one drink per day, that's increasing your risk for cancer." She added, "There doesn't seem to be a threshold at which alcohol consumption is safe." In an editorial accompanying the study, Michael Lauer and Paul Sorlie of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute write that cancer is the "major cause of death by far" among middle-aged women. Therefore, they write that "the only reasonable recommendation we can make is there is no clear evidence that alcohol has medical benefits" (Stein, Washington Post, 2/25).
Although several researchers noted that the study's findings were consistent with previous research, others questioned some aspects of the study. For example, the study relied on self-reported degrees of alcohol consumption and it had no data on overall death rates (Los Angeles Times, 2/25). In addition, the study does not distinguish between women who consumed only one or two drinks each day and women who consumed seven drinks at one time. Some researchers expressed concern that the study would cause unnecessary alarm among women about the risks of drinking alcohol. Eric Rimm of the Harvard School of Public Health said, "We can't use this to scare people away from alcohol" (Washington Post, 2/25).
According to the Times, Allen currently is conducting a study to assess the potential cardiovascular benefits of alcohol consumption among the same group of women. "Only then will we be in a position to comment on the overall benefit" of alcohol consumption, she said (Los Angeles Times, 2/25). In addition, the federal government is rewriting its dietary guidelines regarding alcohol consumption and plans to consider Allen's study during this process, the Post reports. Linda Van Horn, professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University, said "No one study is ever sufficient to make a recommendation. But it will be added to the body of literature that will be reviewed" (Washington Post, 2/25). Philip Brooks, an alcohol and cancer researcher at the National Institutes of Health, said "You have to balance all those things out. This kind of information is important for people to know and to consult with their physicians about the various risk factors they have" (AP/Google, 2/24).
ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" on Tuesday reported on the study (Gibson, "World News with Charles Gibson," ABC, 2/24).
Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.
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