Alcohol boosts risk of breast cancer and deaths

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By Jimmy Downs

Alcohol drinking has been linked to increased risk of developing breast cancer. A new study found drinking wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages also boosts risk of deaths from the disease.

Researchers followed 1,898 patients who were diagnosed and treated for early stage breast cancer and participated in the Life after Cancer Epidemiology Study between 1997 and 2000.

During the follow-up, 275 breast cancer recurrences were identified and 232 subsequent deaths were recorded.

Dr. Marilyn Kwan and colleagues at Kaiser Permanente found postmenopausal women who consumed more than two drinks per day were at 39 percent increased risk of breast cancer recurrence compared to those who drank none.

Primary breast cancer by itself rarely kills the patients.  The patient dies often because the cancer spreads to other vital organs like the liver, ling and brain.  When breast cancer recurrence occurs, the death risk becomes higher.

Alcoholic beverages are recognized by the U.S. National Toxicology Program as a carcinogen, meaning drinking wine and beer increases risk of a variety of cancers including breast cancer even though not all drinkers will definitely get cancer.

Dr. Kwan was quoted as saying "It has been suggested that alcohol could increase the risk of breast cancer by increasing estrogen metabolism and circulating levels of estrogen, thus promoting growth of the tumor" and "A similar mechanism might be responsible for increasing the risk of breast cancer recurrence."

The study also found that diets rich in folate may reduce the risk of breast cancer in moderate wine drinkers as folate was considered in the analysis, the increase in the breast cancer risk did not disappear in regular alcohol drinkers.

Another study led by Li Y and colleagues and published in the March 2009 issue of European Journal of Cancer shows that drinking wine, liquor, and beer boosts risk of developing breast cancer.

Li et al. from Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland California followed 70,033 women of whom 2,829 were diagnosed with breast cancer.

Compared to non-drinkers, those drinking less than 1 drink per day were at 8 percent higher risk of breast cancer.  Those who drank one or two glasses per day were at 21 percent increased risk of the disease and those who drank 3 or more drinks daily were at 38 percent higher risk.

The increased breast cancer risk was particularly significant among women with estrogen receptor positive tumors with no major disparity in terms of choice of wine, liquor, beer or type of wine.

The researchers concluded that drinking one or two glasses of alcohol seems to be safe and drinking alcohol may increase breast cancer risk through a hormone-mediated mechanism.