Alcohol and Breast Cancer

Risk Related to Amount Consumed

Women who drink run the risk of getting breast cancer and that risk is directly related to the amount of alcohol they consume, according to new reports.

Researchers have always suspected alcohol consumption was related to the risk of cancer, but previous findings indicated alcohol was a possible catalyst, but not a carcinogen itself.

In May of 2000, alcoholic beverages were listed for the first time ever as a known human carcinogen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in its "Report on Carcinogens" 9th edition.

Drinking and Breast Cancer

The "known" category is reserved for those substances for which there is sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity from studies in humans that indicates a cause and effect relationship between the exposure and human cancer.

The "Report" states that consumption of alcoholic beverages is causally related to cancers of the mouth pharynx larynx and esophagus and that studies indicate that the risk is most pronounced among smokers and at the highest levels of consumption. But there are studies that show a specific link to drinking and breast cancer.

Dose-Dependent Risk

The Report on Carcinogens said that the effect of a given level of alcoholic beverage intake on cancer is influenced by other factors, especially smoking, but that smoking does not explain the increased cancer hazard associated with alcoholic beverage consumption.

Epidemiologic research has shown a dose-dependent association between alcohol consumption and certain types of cancer -- in other words, as alcohol consumption increases, so does the risk of developing cancers.

Reducing Drinking Reduces Risk

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association "alcohol consumption is associated with a linear increase in breast cancer incidence in women over the range of consumption reported by most women. Among women who consume alcohol regularly, reducing alcohol consumption is a potential means to reduce breast cancer risk."

"Breast cancer is the most common cancer in females. Approximately 1 out of 9 American women have a risk of developing this disease within their lifetime. Drinking alcohol, especially more than one drink per day, can only increase that risk.