Moderate alcohol consumption linked to increase in site-specific cancer risk

Moderate alcohol consumption was associated with an increased risk for cancer, according to data from the Million Women Study. Based on these results, researchers estimate that in the United Kingdom about 13% of cancers of the breast, upper aerodigestive tract, rectum and liver are attributable to alcohol.

The study included 1,280,296 women with a mean age of 55 years. The women completed a questionnaire about their sociodemographic and personal lives, including questions on alcohol consumption. Ninety-eight percent of drinkers consumed <21 drinks per week; the average alcohol intake among all women was 4.4 drinks per week or 10 g of alcohol per day.

Women were followed for a mean 7.2 years; 68,775 women were diagnosed with cancer.

Among drinkers each 10 g per day increase in alcohol consumption was associated with an increased risk for cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, esophagus, larynx, rectum, liver, breast and all cancers combined .

Conversely, increasing alcohol consumption was also associated with a risk reduction for thyroid cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and renal cell carcinoma.

Among never-smokers or past smokers, increasing alcohol consumption was not associated with an increased risk for upper aerodigestive tract cancers, but was associated with an increased risk among current smokers.

“The message from this report takes on a greater sense of urgency when considering the limitation of the many investigations suggesting beneficial cardiovascular effects of alcohol,” Michael S. Lauer, MD,and Paul Sorlie, PhD, of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, wrote in an accompanying editorial. “Even if there are modest beneficial cardiovascular effects of alcohol, the current report of Allen et al should remind us that we must consider these within a broader public health context.”

J Natl Cancer Inst. 2009;doi:10.1093/jnci/djn514