All alcohol types can trigger cancer

Published: 23 July, 2008

It makes no difference whether a woman drinks wine - red or white - beer or spirits - it is the alcohol itself and the quantity consumed that is likely to trigger the onset of cancer.

One of the largest individual studies of the effects of alcohol on the risk of breast cancer has concluded that it makes no difference whether a woman drinks wine - red or white - beer or spirits - it is the alcohol itself and the quantity consumed that is likely to trigger the onset of cancer.

Speaking at a news briefing at the European Cancer Conference in Barcelona, Dr Arthur Klatsky said: "Population studies have consistently linked drinking alcohol to an increased risk of female breast cancer, but there has been little data, most of it conflicting, about an independent role played by the choice of beverage type."

Klatsky's team of researchers found no difference in the risk of developing breast cancer between wine, beer or spirits. Even when wine was divided into red and white, there was no difference. However, when they looked at the relationship between breast cancer risk and total alcohol intake, the researchers found that women who drank between one and two alcoholic drinks per day increased their risk of breast cancer by 10% compared with light drinkers who drank less than one drink a day; and the risk of breast cancer increased by 30% in women who drank more than three drinks a day.

Other studies, including research from the same team have shown that red wine can protect against heart attacks, but Dr Klatsky said that different mechanisms were probably at work.

"We think that the heart protection benefit from red wine is real, but is probably derived mostly from alcohol-induced higher HDL (good') cholesterol, reduced blood clotting and reduced diabetes. None of these mechanisms are known to have anything to do with breast cancer. The coronary benefit from drinking red wine may also be related to favourable drinking patterns common among wine drinkers or to the favourable traits of wine drinkers, as evidenced by US and Danish studies."

Dr Klatsky said that all medical advice needed to be personalised to the individual. "The only general statement that could be made as a result of our findings is that it provides more evidence for why heavy drinkers should quit or cut down."

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