Even moderate drinking affects women's cancer risk

Drinking just a glass of wine a day increases women's risk of breast cancer, as well as several other types of the disease, a new study concludes. The research, carried out among more than a million UK women, says that alcohol accounts for 5,000 cases of breast cancer every year.

Compared to women who said they drank only 1 or 2 units of alcohol a week, women who regularly drank the equivalent of 1 unit a day had an increased risk of getting seven types of cancer: breast, liver, rectum (part of the bowel), mouth, pharynx (a space at the back of the mouth), oesophagus (the tube that takes food from the mouth to the stomach) and larynx (voicebox).

The risk was most increased for breast cancer. In developed countries like the UK, the chance of having had breast cancer by the age of 75 is 9.5 in 100. According to the study, for every extra daily unit of alcohol (over 2 a week), that risk increases by 1.1 per 100. So if you had a roughly 9.5 percent chance of getting breast cancer by the age of 75, but you drank one glass of wine a day, that risk would go up to 10.6 percent. If you drank two glasses of wine a day, that would increase to 11.7 percent.

These might sound like quite small increases in risk. But because many women drink alcohol at these sorts of levels, it means a lot of women are affected overall. The researchers estimate that alcohol accounts for 11 percent of all breast cancers in the UK. That means that every year, 5,000 women get breast cancer who wouldn't have got it without drinking alcohol. moderate drinking affects women's cancer risk