The Association between Breast Cancer and Alcohol Consumption: Review Articles
About 10% of women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime; however in majority of cases the underlying cause is unknown. Across the globe, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in women; the risk factors for breast cancer include older maternal age at birth of first child, earlier onset of menses, later age at menopause, increased mammographic density and the presence of specific genetic alterations (Beasley et al, 2010). Both alcohol and tobacco have significant causal roles in numbers of cancers including breast cancer (Kristan, 2003). A prospective follow-up clinical study that tracked 1.3 million women over 7.3 years demonstrated that among women who reported recent alcohol consumption, a 12% elevation in breast cancer risk was observed for each additional drink (Beasley et al, 2010). Notwithstanding studies such as those cited above the impact of smaller amounts of drinking is not documented well. Information on drinking styles, such as regular drinking and heavy episodic drinking, aka binge drinking, is also deficient. Also, it is important to assess the role of alcohol intake at different times in a woman’s life (Chen et al, 2011). Consumption of alcohol could be a modifiable risk factor which could reduce the cancer burden among women in the Western world. (Tjønneland et al, 2007).
