Alcohol Consumption Can Lead to Cancer, Says a Study

A new study has found that Alcohol Consumption may be the reason behind one in 25 new cancers around the world every year.  An international team of experts estimate 741,300 diagnoses, or 4% of new cancer cases in 2020, could be attributed to heavy and moderate drinking.

The analysis which looked at alcohol sales and medical records in 240 countries found the many cases linked to alcohol were cancers of the oesophagus, liver, and breast. Britain ranked mid-table in the global analysis, with 4% of cancer cases in the country linked to Alcohol Consumption.The US performed slightly better, with around 3% driven by excessive Alcohol Consumption. Both countries were well behind the likes of Mongolia, where consuming too much booze was linked to nearly one in ten cancers and Moldova where it may have been behind one in twelve.

Kuwait, where all alcohol is banned, had the lowest number of cancer cases linked to Alcohol Consumption. The authors admitted their study wasn’t able to look at the impact of the pandemic on drinking rates. Numerous studies have shown that intake of alcohol rates went up during lockdown and more cancers were missed. The research, published in The Lancet Oncology, used alcohol sales data from 2010 and, assuming a 10 year latency period between consumption and diagnosis, then combined this with cancer incidence in 2020.

Researchers drew on data from the World Health Organization’s Global Cancer Observatory, which measures cases of cancer across the world.Globally, men were found to be more likely to get cancer as a result of drinking, accounting for an estimated 77% of all the cases in the study, with women making up the remaining 23%.