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Researcher finds strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer
Strong evidence exists that alcohol consumption causes cancer at seven specific sites in the body, according to a paper published in Addiction.
Those sites are the oropharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon, rectum and female breast, Jennie Connor, MB, ChB, MPH, BSc, PhD, DipObst, FAFPHM, professor in the department of preventive and social medicine at Otago University in New Zealand, wrote.
“Current estimates suggest that alcohol attributable cancers at these sites make up 5.8% of all cancer deaths worldwide,” Connor wrote. “From a public health perspective, alcohol is estimated to have caused approximately half a million deaths from cancer in 2012.”
Connor evaluated reviews undertaken in the last 10 years by the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the Global Burden of Disease Alcohol Group, as well as a meta-analysis by Vincenzo Bagnardi, ScD, and colleagues.
Strong evidence supported the conclusion that there is more than a statistical association between alcohol and cancer.
However, evidence supports that people who gave up alcohol could reverse these risks, Connor wrote.
“The measured associations exhibit gradients of effect that are biologically plausible, and there is some evidence of reversibility of risk in laryngeal, pharyngeal and liver cancers when consumption ceases,” she wrote.
As a result, she recommended campaigns to reduce alcohol consumption, even to those who consume low to moderate levels.
“The highest risks are associated with the heaviest drinking, but a considerable burden is experienced by drinkers with low to moderate consumption, due to the distribution of drinking in the population,” Connor added. “Thus, population-wide reduction in alcohol consumption will have an important effect on the incidence of these conditions, while targeting the heaviest drinkers alone has limited potential.”