Even moderate levels of alcohol consumption appear to be associated with a higher risk of some cancers—including cancers of the female breast—as well as adverse cardiovascular health effects, NCI researchers wrote in JAMA.
The article, “Alcohol and Cancer: Research and Clinical Implications,” is co-authored by three associate directors in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at NCI.
The paper highlights the low awareness of the association between alcohol use and cancer and makes a call for increasing clinician knowledge and patient-provider communication regarding the effects of alcohol on cancer. The authors also supports increased focus and research on the harms of moderate drinking, in addition to the more commonly studied harms from risky drinking and alcohol use disorders.
Alcohol is associated with almost 90,000 cases of cancer of the oral cavity, throat, liver, female breast, and colorectum per year. Awareness of this relationship is low not only in the U.S., but worldwide. The paper also notes evidence that reductions in alcohol use are associated with decreased cancer mortality.
