Moderate Drinking Increases Breast Cancer Risk
Compared to teetotalers, women who drink alcohol have a greater risk of developing breast cancer.
Researchers of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have observed how alcohol intake effects the risk of developing breast cancer in 87,724 postmenopausal women between 50 and 80 years of age. Researchers categorized the women into three groups – women who never drank, former drinkers and current drinkers. Drinkers were further divided into 6 categories according to the average number of drinks a woman had per week. The findings have been reported in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The study showed that alcohol consumption is strongly related to lobular carcinoma and breast cancers triggered by hormones. Even moderate drinking, equivalent to having a single drink per day, caused two-fold increase in breast cancer risk. However, alcohol did not seem to affect development of ductal cancer and hormone receptor negative breast cancer or breast cancers that are not caused by hormones.
Ductal cancer is the commonest form of breast cancer. This cancer starts in the milk ducts. Lobular cancers usually account for about 10 percent breast cancer cases. Also known as lobular carcinoma, lobular cancer starts in the lobules or the milk producing glands of the breast.