The Impact of Alcohol Consumption on Cancer Risk

What is the Relationship between Alcohol and Cancer?

  • Alcohol use is thought to account for approximately 3% to 4% of all cancer deaths each year
    in the United States.
  • In the study conducted by Shutze et al. and published in 2011, more than 350,000 people in
    8 European countries were evaluated and it was concluded that alcohol use was responsible
    for 10% of cancers seen in men and 3% in women

→(The study conducted by Schutze M, Boeing H, Pischon T, et al. Alcohol attributable burden of incidence
of cancer in eight European countries based on results from prospective study. BMJ. 2011;342:d1584.)
According to the compilation of Nelson et al. published in the American Journal of Public Health

  • U.S. death data from 2009 were obtained from the Vital Statistics System based on the international classification of disease classes for each of the 7 cancers (cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon, rectum, and breast).
  • Relative Risk has been established from meta-analyses since 2000 for alcohol use and cancer risk.
  • Overall, it was found that alcohol use accounted for about 3.5% of all cancer deaths in 2009, or about 19,500 people
  • Although people who consume more than 40 grams of alcohol per day (‡ 3 drinks) on average have a higher risk of cancer and more frequent alcohol-related cancer deaths, approximately 30% of alcohol attributed cancer deaths occurred in people who consumed 20 grams or less of alcohol daily.

About 15% of breast cancer deaths among women in the United States are due to alcohol consumption

  • In addition to the risks of high consumption, their findings show that the regular alcohol consumption
    at low levels is also associated with an increased risk of cancer.   

Types of cancer related to alcohol use

  • Mouth
  • Pharynx
  • Larynx
  • Esophagus
  •  Liver
  • Colon and rectum
  • Breast

→Alcohol can also increase the risk of pancreatic cancer. The risk for each of these cancers increases as
the amount of alcohol consumed

Effects of Alcohol

  • Damage to body tissues
  • Low folate levels or other nutrients
  • Effect on estrogen or other hormones
  •  Effect on body weight
  • Interaction with tobacco use
  • In general, the amount of alcohol consumed over time, not the type of alcoholic beverage, seems to be
    the most important factor in increasing cancer risk 
  • Most evidence suggests it’s the ethanol that increases the risk, not the other stuff in the drink.

Alcohol Control Strategies

  • The 63rd World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization adopted the WHA63.13 resolution in
    2010 and approved the global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. The World Health Organization
    urged Member States to appropriately adopt and implement the global strategy

Measures to restrict the demand supply of alcohol

  • Drink-driving policies and countermeasures
  • Alcohol marketing policies
  • Alcohol taxes,
  • Sales point density,
  • Limitations on sales days and hours 
  • Minimum purchase age