Alcohol Consumption Boosts Breast Cancer Risk
Should women stop drinking alcohol altogether? Not quite, but maybe they should stop after that first drink.
A new study by the National Cancer Institute of 1,900 post-menopausal women found that consuming seven to 14 alcoholic drinks per week — in other words, one or two a day — carries a 30 percent to 60 percent increase in breast cancer risk. Most interesting, it was found that these women developed the most common type of breast cancer called “estrogen and progesterone hormone receptor positive” cancer. In comparison to other types of breast cancer, fewer women die from this type.
“[These cancers] behave better, are less aggressive,” says Dr. Claudine Isaacs, professor of oncology at the Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and one of the study’s authors.
This study provides additional support to a larger study published November 2011 in the Journal of the American Medical Association that looked at more than 100,000 women and found that consumption of three to six alcoholic drinks per week carried a 15 percent increased risk of breast cancer. But whereas previous studies demonstrated overall increased risk of breast cancer with alcohol consumption, this new study focuses on the type of breast cancer that would be affected by alcohol.
“The findings from this study are significant because there are relatively few breast cancer risk factors that someone can actually modify or do something about,” Isaacs says, “and alcohol intake is one of them.”
Why Drinking Alcohol Is Linked to Breast Cancer
A research team presented findings that they say may finally explain the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer.
“Cells have different mechanisms to remove toxic substances, such as ethanol, the chemical name for alcohol, that represent a potential risk to them,” explains María de Lourdes Rodríguez-Fragoso, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos in Mexico. “Unfortunately, sometimes these mechanisms produce other toxic substances, including some that are associated with the development of different types of cancer.”
Rodríguez-Fragoso presented her group’s work at the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, held in conjunction with the Experimental Biology 2012 conference in San Diego on April 23.
Alcohol consumption has long been established as a risk factor for breast cancer. But finding the direct link that makes it so has so far proved elusive. Now, Rodríguez-Fragoso and her collaborators think that they have found the answer, a protein called CYP2E1.
In light of the new research, some women might wonder what constitutes a safe amount of alcohol to drink. According to Isaacs, “no more than one drink a day is safe.”
Types of cancer linked to alcohol use
Alcohol is a known cause of cancers of the:
- Mouth
- Throat (pharynx)
- Voice box (larynx)
- Esophagus
- Liver
- Colon and rectum
- Breast
Alcohol may also increase the risk of cancer of the pancreas.
For each of these cancers, the risk increases with the amount of alcohol consumed.
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By JESSICA YARBER, M.D.