January 3, 2025 the US surgeon general announced that new research shows that alcohol causes cancer. CNN reported about it in this news article: Researchers found that even small amounts of alcohol can cause cancer. This is in stark contrast to prior research showing that 1 glass of red wine for women and two glasses of wine for men every day is beneficial for prevention of cardiovascular disease. Cardiologists who did these previous studies neglected to see the cancer risk of even small amounts of alcohol.
Common cancers that alcohol can cause
Alcohol consumption is responsible for 100,000 new cancer cases per year and 20,000 deaths from cancer in the US. Consumption of alcohol is the third most common cause of cancer, behind only smoking and obesity. Recently researchers have determined that alcohol consumption for sure causes seven cancers. They are:
- Breast
- Colorectal
- Esophagus
- Liver
- Mouth
- Throat
- Voice box (laryngeal cancer)
In time researchers likely will find more cancers as a result of drinking alcoholic beverages.
Robustness of data
Previously researchers used less robust data to show that a small amount of alcohol prevents cardiovascular disease. But larger clinical trials and more careful layouts of the trials painted a different picture. It turns out that moderate alcohol consumption shows a significantly higher risk to develop the 7 cancers mentioned above.
Education of the public necessary
About 70% of the public in the US drink alcohol regularly according to Dr. Brian P. Lee. He works as a liver specialist at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California. The concern are not only the various cancers mentioned. Alcohol can also cause liver cirrhosis, which can lead to liver failure and death. Often liver cirrhosis causes death in the late 50’s.
A 2021 Lancet Oncology study
In 2021 the Lancet Oncology journal published a study that was based on a large cohort.
The following results illustrate how alcohol consumption increases cancer cases.
- Globally 741, 300 cancer cases were caused by alcohol consumption. This represents 4.1% of all new cases of cancer in 2020.
- Heavy drinking produced the highest amount of cancer: 346, 400 people in 2020 or 46.7% of alcohol-induced cancers.
- In males, there were 568,700 cancer-attributed cases (76.7%). Regarding females there were 172,600 cases, which is 23.3% of all the alcohol caused cancer cases.
- The cancers that were caused by alcohol were as follows:
- cancers of the oesophagus (31.6%)
- pharynx (22.0%)
- lip and oral cavity (20.2%)
- Other cancers like liver cancer and breast cancer were also clearly related to alcohol consumption.
New Research Shows That Alcohol Causes Cancer
Conclusion
The US surgeon general announced on January 3, 2025 that research showed that alcohol can cause cancer. Up to now cardiologists only mentioned the beneficial effect of smaller amounts of alcohol for prevention of heart attacks. However, now research shows that even smaller amounts of drinks can kill a person from cancer. It is the toxic effects of alcohol on body cells that causes various cancers. Researchers stressed that there were 7 cancers that developed from alcohol exposure. They were cancer of the breast, colorectal, esophagus, liver, mouth, throat and voice box (laryngeal cancer). You can reduce your alcohol intake by switching to water and non-alcoholic products. Non- alcoholic drinks are no longer in the background, but have come very much into fashion! In any event: less is better, and no alcohol is best.
