Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

alcohol and cancer

Over 350,000 people died from alcohol-related cancer in just one year

More than 25% of all alcohol-attributable cancer cases related to breast cancer, a new study found.

ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION CAUSED more than 700,000 new cancer cases and around 366,000 cancer deaths in 2012, mainly in rich countries.

Comparing the cancer risk of people who drink, to that of people who do not, researchers calculated that alcohol was responsible for an estimated 5% of all new cancer cases, and 4.5%  of deaths per year.

Study co-author Kevin Shield of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), said: ”A large part of the population is unaware that cancer can be caused by alcohol.”

Alcohol was most strongly linked to new breast cancer diagnoses, more than one in four of all alcohol-attributable cancer cases, the researchers found, followed by colorectal cancer at 23% .

For breast cancer, particularly, it was clear that “the risk increases with the dose” of alcohol, said Shield.

Measuring alcohol’s contribution to cancer deaths, the researchers found it was most strongly linked to oesophagus cancer fatalities, followed by colorectal cancer.

The IARC, the cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), lists alcohol as a “group 1 carcinogen”, which means it is considered cancer-causing, though Shield said the mechanism was “not exactly known”.

Globally, the burden was highest in north America, Australia and Europe, particularly eastern Europe, but this was slowly changing as people in developing nations start imbibing more, the researchers said.

Read: Undocumented in Ireland: “We’re the very same as the Irish undocumented in the US” >

Read: The HSE has been offered an additional 1,000 beds this winter >

Your Voice
Readers Comments
21
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.