WASHINGTON: Light to
moderate alcohol drinkers have an increased risk of breast cancer
compared to women who do not drink beer, wine or liquor, said a US study
published on Tuesday.
Women who drink three to six glasses of
alcohol per week have a 15 percent higher risk of getting breast cancer
than women who do not drink, said the research led by Brigham and
Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Women who drink on
average two glasses daily of alcohol show a 51 percent higher risk of
breast cancer, said the study published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
Researchers followed 105,986 women who
answered survey questions about their health and alcohol consumption
from 1980 until 2008.
The higher breast cancer risk was seen
whether the women drank early in life or whether they were drinking
after age 40, suggesting that even stopping may not have an effect on
lowering risk.
The findings also present a dilemma for women who
may choose to drink small amounts of alcohol, such as red wine, for
heart health.
"There are no data to provide assurance that giving
up alcohol will reduce breast cancer risk," said an accompanying
editorial by Steven Narod, a doctor at the Women's College Research
Institute, Toronto.
"Women who abstain from all alcohol may find
that a potential benefit of lower breast cancer risk is more than offset
by the relinquished benefit of reduced cardiovascular mortality
associated with an occasional glass of red wine," he wrote.
The
study authors said that the reason for the boost in breast cancer risk
remains unknown, but hypothesised that it could be due to the elevation
of sex hormones circulating in a woman's system after she drinks
alcohol.
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