The Dietary Guidelines also recommends that people who drink alcohol do so in moderation by limiting consumption to 2 drinks or less in a day for men and 1 drink or less in a day for women. Heavy alcohol drinking is defined as having 4 or more drinks on any day or 8 or more drinks per week for women and 5 or more drinks on any day or 15 or more drinks per week for men. Educating the public about the cancer risk from drinking alcohol, regardless of the beverage type, is especially urgent given the increase in drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Klein said. Because cancer risk increases with the amount of ethanol consumed, all alcoholic beverages pose a risk. The significantly greater risks seen in men carrying the low-alcohol tolerability ALDH2 gene variant who still drank regularly suggests that greater accumulation of acetaldehyde may directly increase cancer risk.

And although people who identified as Hispanic were less likely than White participants to report drinking alcohol, those who did drink were more likely to drink heavily. For the study, the research team identified 15,199 participants who, between May 2018 and January 2022, 18 essential coping skills for addiction get 24 7 help reported a history of cancer on their initial survey. By comparison, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 17% of US adults binge drink and 6% report heavy drinking (15 or more drinks a week for men, 8 for women).

The plant secondary compound resveratrol, found in grapes used to make red wine and some other plants, has been investigated for many possible health effects, including cancer prevention. However, researchers have found no association between moderate consumption of red wine and the risk of developing prostate cancer (32) or colorectal cancer (33). Worldwide, alcohol may cause around 3 million deaths each year, including over 400,000 from cancer. With alcohol consumption rising, effects of meth on the body what does meth do to your body particularly in rapidly developing countries such as China, there is an urgent need to understand how alcohol affects disease risks in different populations. Interpersonal influences, including interactions with family and friends, also shape knowledge and behaviors (42, 43). Because overt behaviors appear to be more susceptible to normative influence than clandestine behaviors (44), alcohol consumption behaviors in groups might be especially subject to social sanction.

Is it safe for someone to drink alcohol while undergoing cancer chemotherapy?

Alcohol regulations are designed to ensure an orderly marketplace, and to minimize or reduce the health, social, and economic harms due to consumption. The U.S. Community Preventive Services Task Force’s (CPSTF) Guide to Community Preventive Services (54), and WHO’s 2010 Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol(8) describe a range of evidence-based alcohol control policies. Another enzyme, called aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2), metabolizes toxic acetaldehyde to nontoxic substances. Some people, particularly those of East Asian descent, carry a variant of the gene for ALDH2 that encodes a defective form of the enzyme. In people who produce the defective enzyme, acetaldehyde builds up when they drink alcohol.

A better understanding of alcohol consumption’s effects on therapeutic response, disease progression, and long-term cancer outcomes may support medical decision making and improve survivorship. Ethanol–the principal form of alcohol in alcoholic beverages–is a widely-used, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance. Alcohol research and control efforts supported by multiple governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) internationally have found that the public health impact of harmful alcohol consumption is substantial. In 2016, it resulted in an estimated 5.1% of the global burden of disease and injury, and 5.3% of deaths (1).

That said, Dr. DuVall continued, high alcohol use in AYAs who have or had cancer is not necessarily surprising. But the All of Us study, Dr. Cao and her colleagues explained, offered a unique opportunity to take a robust look at people in these groups in the United States.

Policy-level interventions to reduce the adverse health effects, including cancer, of alcohol consumption

For cancer specifically, an estimated 4.1% of all new cases globally in 2020 (3), and from 2013 through 2016, 4.8% of all cases annually in the U.S., were attributable to alcohol consumption (4). Current evidence suggests that “[t]here is no threshold of alcohol consumption below which cancer risk does not increase, at least for some cancers ” (5), and cancer prevention guidelines indicate that it is best not to drink alcohol (5, 6). Despite the large body of scientific evidence on the topic, the full cancer burden due to alcohol remains uncertain because for many cancer (sub)types associations with risk and survivorship are inconsistent or there are few studies. Moreover, most U.S. adults are unaware of the alcohol-cancer link (7), and the interrelationships of alcohol control regulations and cancer risk is unclear. Drinking alcohol increases the risk of several cancer types, including cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract, liver, colorectum, and breast.

1. Studies have shown that “high-risk behaviors are higher in [AYA] survivors,” Dr. DuVall said.
2. According to the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025, individuals who do not drink alcohol should not start drinking for any reason.
3. But results from a new study suggest that this information may not be reaching people who fall into either of these two categories.
4. Of the participants with a history of cancer, nearly 1,800 were in active treatment for cancer at the time they completed the initial survey.

However, in a cross-sectional survey of cancer survivors, only 14% of regular drinkers recalled receiving counselling from a clinician to quit drinking, although those who did were five-fold more likely to report reducing or stopping drinking compared to those who did not receive counseling (46). These findings suggest that clinicians may underappreciate cancer risks due to alcohol, and need additional guidance to reinforce clear and consistent messaging to effectively discuss this issue with their patients. Addressing knowledge gaps related to alcohol-cancer communication has potential to increase awareness and affect alcohol consumption behavior. For people being treated for cancer, regularly consuming a few beers or cocktails also has other potentially harmful consequences, including making their treatments less effective. And for longer-term cancer survivors, there is some evidence that regular alcohol use may increase the chances of their cancer returning.

Quitting Smoking Improves Lung Cancer Survival

Since women rarely drink alcohol in China, the main analysis focused on men, a third of whom drank regularly (most weeks in the past year). Because these alleles are allocated at birth and are independent of other lifestyle factors (such as smoking), they can be used as a proxy for alcohol intake, to assess how alcohol consumption affects disease risks. “The high prevalence of cancer survivors engaged in hazardous drinking highlights the need for immediate interventions,” they wrote. Particularly troublesome is that so many younger people—those within the 15–39 age range of adolescents and young adults, or AYAs—reported heavy drinking, said Adam DuVall, M.D., of the University of Chicago Cancer Center, who specializes in treating blood cancers in children and AYAs.

Only a few studies have tried to capture the drinking behaviors of cancer survivors, including those still undergoing treatment, said Dr. Agurs-Collins, who was not involved in this new study. And little has been done to understand how to help those who are heavier drinkers change their behavior. Of the participants with a history of cancer, nearly 1,800 were in active treatment for cancer at the time they completed the initial survey. Of that group, nearly 25% reported binge drinking and 38% reported hazardous drinking. According to the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025, individuals who do not drink alcohol should not start drinking for any reason.

Susan M. Gapstur

Evidence from Western countries already strongly indicates that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer in the head, neck, oesophagus, liver, colon and breast. But it has been difficult to establish whether alcohol directly causes cancer, or if it is linked to possible confounding factors (such as smoking and diet) that could generate biased results. It was also unclear whether alcohol is linked to other barbiturates types of cancer, including lung and stomach cancers. Alcohol drinking disorders can lead to liver fibrosis and cirrhosis (12)–an established cause of liver cancer. Greater collaboration with other specialties and clinicians who regularly interact with people with cancer, such as oncology nurses, to develop ways to reduce risky drinking behaviors will be needed moving forward, Dr. Agurs-Collins said.

What is alcohol?

As with most questions related to a specific individual’s cancer treatment, it is best for patients to check with their health care team about whether it is safe to drink alcohol during or immediately following chemotherapy treatment. The doctors and nurses administering the treatment will be able to give specific advice about whether it is safe to consume alcohol while undergoing specific cancer treatments. There is a strong scientific consensus that alcohol drinking can cause several types of cancer (1, 2). In its Report on Carcinogens, the National Toxicology Program of the US Department of Health and Human Services lists consumption of alcoholic beverages as a known human carcinogen.

According to the study’s findings, male long-term survivors and younger people being treated for cancer were among those who were particularly likely to be heavy or frequent drinkers. The December 2020 NCI Workshop highlighted existing evidence on the alcohol-cancer link, and revealed opportunities to strengthen relevant scientific knowledge. Additionally, the workshop panel recognized that the health, including cancer, impact of increases in alcohol consumption resulting from the coronavirus pandemic (60) will need to be carefully assessed, particularly if these behaviors are sustained long-term. Significant knowledge gaps on the impact of alcohol use (and cessation) among cancer patients and survivors remain.