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Researchers Add Excessive Alcohol Consumption to the List of Cancer Causes Print E-mail
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Researchers Add Excessive Alcohol Consumption to the List of Cancer Causes[Nubella News] - Scientists at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, said that excessive drinking can raise the risk of cancer of the mouth, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon and breast, and may be linked to pancreatic and lung cancer. And the more alcohol is consumed, the higher the risk.

But they urged people not to give up alcohol completely, but to drink in moderation because of alcohol's protective benefits against a range of cardiovascular diseases.

"Alcohol is underestimated as a cause of cancer in many parts of the world," Dr. Paolo Boffetta, a cancer epidemiologist at the institute, said in a report in The Lancet Oncology, a British cancer journal. "A sizeable proportion of cancer today is due to alcohol intake and this is increasing in many regions, particularly in east Asia and eastern Europe.

"Total avoidance of alcohol, although optimum for cancer control, cannot be recommended in terms of broad perspective of public health, in particular in countries with high incidence of cardiovascular disease."

Lifestyle changes may prevent about 2.4 million, or 35 percent, of the 7 million cancer deaths worldwide, according to a U.S. study in the Lancet in November.

Boffeta said that keeping daily consumption to two drinks for men and one drink for women is okay. In developed countries in 2000, the World Health Organization estimates that alcohol caused 185,000 deaths in men and 142,000 in women, but prevented 71,000 male deaths and 277,000 female deaths in the same year.

In developing countries, where there are fewer cases of cardiovascular disease, alcohol was linked with 1.52 million deaths in men and 301,000 in women.

Source: The Lancet Oncology
Posted by: Steve Smith
Website: www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/14702045

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