Even moderate drinkers are at high cancer risk

A new study suggests that even light to moderate drinking can increase the risk of developing alcohol related cancers in men and women who smoke.

The first data on the topic was gathered in 1980 and 1986, and 88,084 women and 47,881 men participated by detailing their diets in a food frequency questionnaire.

Alcoholic beverages have also been linked to colorectal cancer, liver cancer, larynx cancer and oesophageal cancer in the past, however researchers stressed that only heavy drinking should be avoided in the previous studies.

However, even in never smoking women, risk of alcohol-related cancers, mainly breast cancer, increased even within the range of up to one drink a day. “For men, especially those who ever smoked, they should limit alcohol to even below the recommended limit”, she says.

The researchers found that overall, light to moderate drinking was associated with a small but non-significant increased risk of total cancer in both men and women, regardless of smoking history.

People who engage in light or moderate drinking every day are at an increased risk of cancer, a study has found.

He said that “Light to moderate drinking should be limited to no more than 10g of pure alcohol a day for women and 20g for men (roughly one standard drink a day for women and two standard drinks for men, as defined in most countries)”.

Prof Gilmore said: “There is no such thing as a safe level of drinking when it comes to the risk of cancer”.

And it underlines the unfairness of the gender divide showing men don’t face the same cancer risk from alcohol. Besides breast cancer, alcohol-related cancers include colon, liver, oral, throat and esophagus cancer.

Despite repeated evidence of alcohol’s role in increasing cancer risk a recent Cancer Council Victoria survey found only 9% of respondents listed limiting alcohol as a way to decrease their cancer risk.

Jurgen Rehm, director of the social and epidemiological research department at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, wasn’t surprised by the results.

Dr Richard Roope, clinical lead for cancer at the Royal College of Global Positioning System, said: “We have known about the strong link between alcohol and cancer for some time, but this study serves as a useful reminder about how pronounced this is, especially when coupled with smoking, and when people have a family history of cancer”.

The NHS recommends that men should not regularly drink more than three to four units (two cans of 4.5% lager) a day and women two to three units (two small glasses of 12% wine) a day – although these drinking guidelines are now under review and so could change.

The OECD report warned that as more women delay motherhood, or choose not to have children at all, they are drinking into their 30s, 40s and beyond.

If you want to reduce your risk for cancer, curb your drinking, advised Rehm, who wrote an accompanying journal editorial. “Limit your consumption of alcohol”.