Alcohol Consumption and Breast Cancer Risk in Postmenopausal Women

[Guest guest]

> Alcohol Consumption and Breast Cancer Risk in Postmenopausal Women

> http://www.hopkinsbreastcenter.org/artemis/200806/2.html

>

> One of the largest studies of its kind has found that alcohol is a

> substantial risk factor for development of the most common type of breast

cancer - the

> 70 percent of tumors that are classified as positive for both the estrogen

> and progesterone receptors (ER+/PR+). The findings were presented at the

> annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

>

> Researchers report that even moderate alcohol consumption, defined as one or

> two drinks per day, increased risk of developing this kind of cancer, and

> the more a woman drank, the higher her risk. Compared to women who did not

> drink at all, women who had three or more glasses of alcohol daily had as much

as

> a 51 percent increased risk of ER+/PR+ breast cancer.

>

> " This suggests that a woman should evaluate consumption of alcohol along

> with other known breast cancer risk factors, such as use of hormone

replacement

> therapy, " said the study's first author, Jasmine Q. Lew, a fourth-year

> medical student at the University of Chicago who is conducting this research

as a

> recipient of the Medical Institute-National Institutes of Health

> Research Scholarship at the National Cancer Institute?s (NCI) Division of

> Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.

>

> Lew and her research colleagues from NCI say their analysis could not

> support a definitive conclusion as to whether alcohol influences development

of

> other breast cancer tumor types. " But we have enough numbers to study

alcohol's

> influence on ER+/PR+ breast cancer, " she said.

>

> Epidemiologic studies have long suggested that use of alcohol may increase a

> woman?s risk for developing breast cancer, and laboratory studies have shown

> that alcohol increases the amount of estrogen metabolites available in a

> woman's body, which can then act as a fuel for hormone-sensitive breast

cancer.

> But few studies have looked at alcohol?s effect on tumor type.

>

> In this study, the researchers reviewed data from the NIH-AARP Diet and

> Health Study, which began in 1995. Lew and her colleagues analyzed 184,418

> postmenopausal women who enrolled in this cohort study, and who answered

questions

> about their daily alcohol consumption. During an average of seven years of

> follow-up, they found that 70 percent of women in the study drank alcohol; the

> average amount was a little less than a drink a day. Overall, the authors

> found that moderate drinking in women increased risk of developing breast

> cancer.

>

> They then identified 5,461 cases of invasive breast cancer, for which they

> had tumor type information on 2,391 cases. In all, they analyzed data on 1,641

> ER+/PR+, 366 ER-/PR-, 336 ER+/PR-, and 48 ER-/PR+ cases of invasive breast

> cancer.

>

> The researchers found that ER+/PR+ cancers showed a stronger association

> with alcohol than that seen in the overall group. Compared to non-drinkers,

> women who consumed less than one drink daily, one to two drinks, and three or

> more daily drinks, the increase in relative risk for developing ER+/PR+ breast

> cancer was 7 percent, 32 percent, and 51 percent, respectively. Although the

> data suggested increased risks among the women with ER+/PR- breast cancer, the

> number of cases was relatively small, and this finding was not statistically

> significant.

>

> The increased risk of invasive breast cancer was observed across different

> types of alcohol consumed.

>

> " Our study at this point provides evidence for the notion that alcohol

> affects estrogen metabolism, which increases risk of hormone sensitive breast

> cancer, " Lew said. " Still, more study is needed to clarify the effect of

alcohol

> on other tumor types. "

>

> SOURCES:

> American Association for Cancer Research 2008 Annual Meeting, April 12-16,

> 2008, San Diego, CA

> American Association for Cancer Research (http://www.aacr.org )

> ___________________________________________________________

>

>

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>

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> _____________________________________________________________________________

> PREVENTING AND MANAGING LYMPHEDEMA

> Strategies for the early recognition & management of lymphedema

>

> TUESDAY, JULY 22- 6:30-8PM - Heermance Memorial Library, 1 Ely St.,

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> _____________________________________________________________________________

> CAMP LIGHTHEART and the CAMP LIGHTHEART WALK

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>

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>

>

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