Cancer and Alcohol: 3 Things You Need to Know

2. The more alcohol you consume, the greater your risk.

The general rule of thumb when it comes to alcohol and cancer: The more you drink over time — whether it’s wine, beer, cocktails or liquor — the higher your cancer risk, the CDC says.

Nearly half (46.7 percent) of the people who got cancer due to their drinking were “heavy” drinkers (about four or more drinks per day), the Lancet Oncology study found. Slightly fewer (39.4 percent) were “risky” drinkers (about two to four drinks per day). The final group was the “moderate” drinkers, at around one drink a day; they accounted for about 13.9 percent of alcohol-driven cancer cases.

Current CDC guidelines recommend no more than one alcoholic drink a day for women and no more than two for men — and we’re talking conservative pours, with a glass of wine topping off at 5 ounces.

Because cancer is more common later in life, drinking responsibly may be more crucial for older people who want to lower their risks. “Aging is associated with widespread inflammation in the body,” says George F. Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). And this inflammation can cause a phenomenon known as oxidative stress, which puts the balance between free radicals (the bad guys) and antioxidants (the good guys) out of whack. “Oxidative stress caused by chronic inflammation, combined with age-related declines in antioxidant levels, could contribute to the development of cancers during aging,” Koob adds.

3. Concerned about your risks? Talk with your doctor.   

Even with global studies like the one published in Lancet Oncology and others that examine state-by-state trends in the U.S., it’s still unclear exactly how many cancer cases are directly caused by alcohol “and whether the number of such cases is increasing or decreasing,” Koob says.

But the burden is likely bigger than current estimates, argues Amy Justice, M.D., a clinical epidemiologist and professor of medicine and public health at Yale School of Medicine. In a commentary published alongside the Lancet Oncology study, Justice points out that the results don’t take former drinkers into account. Also, the study relied on self-reported data, which asked people to reveal how much they drank — even if they couldn’t remember and even if it was more than they wanted to admit.

“We do not ask people with diabetes what their glycosylated hemoglobin is, we check it. Then we discuss their risk of adverse health outcomes informed by the test results and their personal risk profile,” Justice writes. “We should use a similar approach to counseling patients regarding risk from alcohol.”

We’re not at that point — yet. In the meantime, experts say, you should talk with your doctor about how much you drink so that you can better understand the risks. Many people aren’t having this conversation about alcohol with health care providers. Indeed, one study found that more than a quarter of older adults who used alcohol were not asked about their drinking by their physician. And women are less likely than men to discuss drinking with their doctor.

Alcohol misuse is often associated with other risky behaviors “that could contribute to an increase in cancer risk during aging, too,” Koob says, though it’s unknown “how these risks and protective factors interact with one another or how the balance of risk and protective factors might have changed over time.”

So in addition to thinking about your drinking, pay attention to how much you exercise and sleep. And if you smoke, try to quit. Some risk factors for cancer are out of your control, like genetics and exposure to certain environmental toxins. But many cancers are preventable.  

For more information on finding and getting help for alcohol use, visit the NIAAA’s website.