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Just One Drink a Day Can Raise Your Cancer Risk: What Adults Over 50 Should Know
No amount of alcohol is safe, and experts say cutting back can still make a difference later in life
No amount of alcohol is considered safe when it comes to cancer risk, and the risk increases the more you drink.
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Key takeaways
- Even light drinking can raise the risk of some cancers, including breast cancer.
- Adults 55 and older accounted for about 84 percent of estimated alcohol-attributable cancer deaths in the U.S. in 2023.
- Experts say cutting back is worthwhile at any age, even after decades of drinking.
When it comes to cancer, even one beer, glass of wine or cocktail carries a risk.
For women, one alcoholic drink a day increases the risk of breast cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. Even light drinking can raise the risk of some cancers, and risk generally rises as alcohol consumption increases.
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“For cancer, there is no safe amount of drinking,” says Dr. Noelle LoConte, a medical oncologist and geriatrician in the University of Wisconsin’s department of medicine who chairs the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s alcohol policy work group. “There is a dose-response effect, so the more you drink and the longer you drink, the higher your risk.”
The issue has particular relevance for older adults. A study published Sept. 2 in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas analyzed data from the Global Burden of Disease study to estimate alcohol-attributable cancer deaths in the U.S. from 1990 through 2023.
The study’s authors found that the number of such deaths doubled, from 11,361 in 1990 to 23,126 in 2023. Adults 55 and older accounted for 19,460 of the deaths in 2023, about 84 percent.
That does not mean an individual drinker’s cancer risk doubled. After researchers adjusted for the aging population, the alcohol-attributable cancer death rate rose from 3.8 to 4.1 per 100,000 people, a 7.6 percent increase. Adults 55 and older had about eight times the alcohol-attributable cancer death rate of adults ages 20 to 54.
What is the impact on older adults?
Alcohol does not suddenly become more dangerous at 55. The study simply divided people into two groups: ages 20 to 54 and 55 and older.
The researchers could not tell exactly why older adults had more alcohol-related cancer deaths, and they did not know how much each person had consumed over a lifetime. The study could not directly measure an individual’s lifetime alcohol exposure or determine why a particular person developed cancer, notes Dr. Chinmay Jani, a medical oncologist at the University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and a coauthor of the study.
Time is likely part of the explanation, says Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society.
“Cancer takes a long time to develop, and cancer rates peak in your 60s,” Dahut says. “Given older adults have had a longer period of life exposed to alcohol, this is likely why we see this trend.”
Alcohol can also affect people differently as they get older, although the study did not look at whether that helps explain the higher cancer death rate among older adults.
Dr. Gilberto Lopes, chief of medical oncology at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and a coauthor of the study, says, “The same amount of alcohol can produce a higher blood alcohol concentration and stronger effects,” explaining that this may be because older adults often have less muscle and less body water.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism also warns that many medications commonly taken by older adults can also interact with alcohol, making the medication less effective or increasing side effects.
Alcohol is linked to more than liver cancer
Liver cancer may be the disease people associate most closely with alcohol, but the list is much longer.
According to the National Cancer Institute, strong evidence links alcohol use to cancers of the mouth, throat, voice box, esophagus, liver, breast, colon and rectum.
Among men 55 and older, liver cancer had the highest alcohol-attributable cancer death rate in the new study, followed by esophageal and colorectal cancers. Among women 55 and older, breast cancer had the highest rate, followed by liver and colorectal cancers.
Those rankings describe alcohol-attributable cancer deaths across the population. They do not tell an individual drinker which cancer a person is most likely to develop.
How much is too much?
Though alcohol consumption has declined, drinking remains common among older Americans. A 2025 Gallup poll found that 56 percent of adults 55 and older said they drink alcohol, the same percentage as adults ages 35 to 54. In 2023, 61 percent of older adults reported drinking alcohol. Even small amounts of alcohol can raise the risk of some cancers, particularly breast cancer, Lopes says.
A person’s individual risk also depends on factors including age, tobacco use, liver disease, genetics and family history, Lopes says.
So how should someone use that information?
“That is an individual decision,” Lopes says. “Our job as cancer doctors is not to tell adults how to live; it is to make sure they are making that decision with accurate information. If someone wants to minimize their cancer risk from alcohol, less is better and none is best.”
Lopes says he applies that same calculation to his own life.
“I don’t drink regularly any longer, but on occasion, once a week or every couple of weeks, I enjoy a glass of wine with my wife or a beer with friends at a football or soccer match.”
Does wine carry less risk than liquor?
No type of alcoholic drink gets a pass when it comes to cancer risk.
According to the National Cancer Institute, beer, wine and liquor all contain ethanol, the type of alcohol linked to cancer. A standard drink contains 14 grams of ethanol, whether it is 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor. The NCI also says research has not found that moderate red wine drinking lowers overall cancer risk.
Is it worth cutting back after 50?
The new study did not follow individuals who cut back or stopped drinking, so it cannot answer that question on its own. But research suggests there’s a benefit to cutting back at any age.
A 2023 analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that stopping alcohol consumption was associated with lower risks of mouth and esophageal cancers, though, as Dahut notes, more research is needed to understand how cutting back or quitting affects the risks of throat, breast, colorectal and other cancers. While it may take years for an ex-drinker’s cancer risk to return to the same level as that of someone who never drank, the NCI emphasizes that it’s never too late to quit.
“The central message is that alcohol is a modifiable cancer risk factor whose effects may emerge after many years. Reducing alcohol intake remains worthwhile at any age,” Jani says.
Think of it as moderation.
“Cutting back can help,” Lopes says. “A person does not need to achieve complete abstinence before gaining potential benefit from reducing consumption, although stopping provides the greatest reduction in alcohol exposure.”
Asked what she would tell an older adult trying to apply all of this in everyday life, LoConte says, “I would tell you to find something else you enjoy that isn’t a carcinogen. If you do drink, drink less than one per day, and know that drinking increases your cancer risk.” She adds, “For some people, that’s a risk they are willing to take. For others, it isn’t. It’s about people being aware and making the best choices for themselves.”
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