Study: Drinking Alcohol Ups Risk of Breast Cancer

Drinking alcohol puts women at a greater risk for breast cancer and the risk increases by about 7 percent with every drink, according to a report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Queen's University researcher Kristan Aronson reported that in analyzing evidence from 53 epidemiologic studies, the Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer "found that alcohol is clearly an independent risk factor for breast cancer."

The risk increases with increasing alcohol consumption, according to Aronson.

"Specifically, there was a 7 percent increase in risk with each drink of alcohol per day," Aronson reported. "This linear dose-response confirms previous findings and argues against a threshold effect for alcohol."

Overall, she said, "about 4 percent of new cases of breast cancer can be attributed to drinking alcohol."

"What is important here is that alcohol consumption is one of the few known risk factors for breast cancer that is a potentially modifiable behaviour at both the individual and the societal level.," Aronson said.

"What does this mean for women?" said Aronson. "For some groups, there is a clear benefit of consuming a moderate amount of alcohol. For women, this now must be weighed against increased breast cancer risk. Women who drink should do so at low or moderate levels, and in many cases this will mean drinking less."

Other sources: Canadian Medical Association Journal