According to the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025, individuals who do not drink alcohol should not start drinking for any reason. The Dietary Guidelines also recommends that people who drink alcohol do so in moderation by limiting consumption to 2 drinks or less in a day for men and 1 drink or less in a day for women. Heavy alcohol drinking is defined as having 4 or more drinks on any day or 8 or more drinks per week for women and 5 or more drinks on any day or 15 or more drinks per week for men.
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So, we were interested in looking at how people have been influenced by these beliefs about types of alcohol. We found that a lower number of people believed that wine increased cancer risk compared to beer or liquor. Only about 20% of respondents believed that wine increased cancer risks, compared to about 25% for beer, and about 31% for liquor. The researchers analyzed available data on population-level alcohol use in 2010 and on cancer cases in 2020. There is strong and consistent evidence that drinking alcohol increases your risk of developing a cancer, based on a growing body of research. Alcohol is estimated to account for 6% of cancer cases in the U.S. — more than 75,000 per year — and nearly 19,000 cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society.
The study confirmed that most American adults aren’t aware of the link between alcohol consumption and cancer. It also found that, even among those who are aware, there’s a belief that it varies by the type of alcohol. For example, more participants were aware of the cancer risks from hard liquor and beer than about the risk from wine, with some participants believing wine lowers your cancer risk. The types of cancer with the most cases linked to alcohol use were cancers of the esophagus and liver and, in women, breast cancer, the researchers reported July 13 in The Lancet Oncology.
What types of cancer can be caused by drinking alcohol?
Several mechanisms have been postulated through which alcohol may contribute to an increased risk of cancer. Concurrent tobacco use, which is common among drinkers, enhances alcohol’s effects on the risk for cancers of the upper digestive and respiratory tract. The analysis did not identify a threshold level of alcohol consumption below which no increased risk for cancer was evident. For example, in a series of case-control studies conducted in Italy, the RRs for the highest exposure levels to both risk factors were 80 for cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, 12 for laryngeal cancer, and 18 for esophageal cancer (Franceschi et al. 1990). From a public health view, this synergism implies that over 75 percent of cancers of the upper digestive and respiratory tract in developed countries are attributable to alcohol and tobacco.
Report Details Alcohol’s Global Cancer Burden
The WHO researchers also created an interactive website where people can explore the results by country, cancer site, and Im Sober and My Spouse Is Not Marriage and Sobriety other variables. The overall death rate for cancer has dropped 33% from 1991 to 2021, which is the equivalent of 4.1 million fewer deaths due to cancer, according to the Cancer Progress Report 2024 from the American Association for Cancer Research. The 5-year survival rate has improved for children, adolescents, and young adults, with about 85% now living at least 5 years beyond diagnosis. The consultant admitted under oath that the purpose of his many FoI requests and his subsequent, libelous blog posts was to undermine the credibility of researchers and advocates at the behest of the industries that were paying him to do so.
- “Cutting back one drink is a risk reduction, but the greatest risk reduction is going from three drinks to zero,” Bevers says.
- It was also easy to ignore a steady drumbeat of studies that showed that alcohol consumption is undeniably linked to cancer risk.
- Of all cancers, 40% have modifiable risk factors, such as reducing alcohol consumption, quitting smoking, or managing body weight, the authors noted.
Early-onset cancers on the rise in the US
It is still unclear, however, whether any defined consumption threshold exists below which no increased risk for cancer is evident (IARC 1988; Doll et al. 1999). Public awareness campaigns and regulatory actions are needed to help people take action to reduce their cancer risk, the authors wrote. Of all cancers, 40% have modifiable risk factors, such as reducing alcohol consumption, quitting smoking, or managing body weight, the authors noted. The CDC reports that more than half of U.S. adults drink alcohol, 17% binge drink, and 6% drink heavily.
These increased risks are seen only among people who carry the ALDH2 variant and drink alcohol—they are not observed in people who carry the variant but do not drink alcohol. Alcoholic drinks contain ethanol, which is a known carcinogen, and there are several ways in which it may cause cancer. For example, ethanol can increase estrogen in the body, which increases the risk of breast cancer. The breakdown of ethanol in the body can also create high levels of acetaldehyde, which can damage DNA and cause liver, head and neck, and esophageal cancers.