HOW ALCOHOL INTAKE INCREASES BREAST CANCER RISK

Posted by Cash On on 2012-05-31 0

Alcohol increases the risk of labour and hormone receptor positive breast cancer, but not necessarily invasive ductal carcinomas, according to a study published in the journey of the national cancer institute.
Although alcohol intake is an established risk factor for overall breast cancer, few studies have looked at the relationship between alcohol use and breast cancer risk by subtype of crept cancer. While some studies have shown alcohol use is more strongly related to risk of hormone receptor positive (estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor-positive) breast cancer, not many have looked at breast cancer risk by histology, or whether a tumor is ductal - in the milk ducts or lobular, in the milk producing lobules.

To understand how alcohol may influence subtypes of breast cancer, prof. Christopher I. Li and colleagues at Fred Hutchinson cancer Research center, united states, conducted an observational study of a subset of patients in the women's health initiative (WHI) study conducted between 1993 and 1998, which included 87,724 post menopausal women aged 50-79 years.

The researchers look at the following data from the 2,944 women in the WHI study who developed invasion breast cancer: tumor subtypes and hormone status, alcohol consumption, demographic and lifestyle characteristics, family history of diseases and reproductive history.

Women were categorised as those who never drank, those who formerly drank and those who currently drank.
Drinkers were grouped into six categories according to the average number of drinks per week, starting from less than one per week to more than 14 drinks per week.
The researchers found that alcohol use is more strongly related to the risk of lobular carcinoma than ductal carcinoma, and more strongly related to hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer than hormone -receptor-negative breast cancer.