Cancer
Review study: Alcohol raises breast cancer risk
By Sue Mueller
Apr 15, 2008 - 10:59:04 AM

TUESDAY April 15, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- A study we reported yesterday suggested that intake of even a small amount of alcohol per day increases the risk of invasive breast cancer.  And the risk increase was particularly significant for the estrogen-receptor (ER+) and progesterone-receptor positive (PR+) breast cancer, which accounts for 70 percent of the most common type of breast cancer.

The study found the risk of ER+/PR+ breast cancer was 51 percent, 32 percent, and 7 percent higher among those who drank three or more glasses of alcohol a day, among those who drank one or two drinks and among those who drank one glass a day respectively, compared to the risk among teetotalers.

The study was conducted Catalin Marian, M.D., Ph.D. at Georgetown University and colleagues and presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego.

Another study titled "Alcohol intake and risk of breast cancer defined by estrogen and progesterone receptor status--a meta-analysis of epidemiological studies" was published on April 15 in International Journal of Cancer and it also revealed similar association between alcohol consumption and risk of breast cancer.  That is, alcohol mostly affects the hormone-receptor-positive tumors.

The study was conducted by Suzuki R and colleagues from Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Suzuki et al. meta-analyzed data from previous cohort and case-control studies published through April 20, 2007 and found those who consumed the highest amounts of alcohol were at statistically significantly higher risks of developing all ER+ (27%), all ER- (14%), ER+PR+ (22%) and ER+PR- (28%), but not ER-PR- tumors than those consumed the lowest amounts.
    
They were able to quantify the effect of alcohol on breast cancer risk. They found an increase in alcohol consumption of 10 g of ethanol per day was associated with statistically significant increased risks for all ER+ (12%), all ER- (7%), ER+PR+ (11%) and ER+PR- (15%), but not ER-PR- tumors.

The authors suggested that "The observed positive associations with alcohol for ER+PR+ and ER+PR- tumors cannot be explained by estrogen-dependent pathway only. Further studies need to clarify the biological mechanisms."

The bottom line is that alcohol is recognized as a human carcinogen and its consumption increases for sure the risk of a variety of cancer in addition to breast cancer, according to a foodconsumer.org scientist.