Alcohol and Breast Cancer Risk

Though we've known for some time that alcohol intake is a known risk factor for breast cancer, we've not known precisely which types of breast cancer are most encouraged by alcohol.

Now, some new research out of the Fred Hutchinson Center has shown that alcohol specifically increases the risk of invasive lobular carcinoma, a type that starts in the milk-producing glands and spreads into surrounding tissues. It accounts for about 10 percent to 15 percent of invasive breast cancers. The researchers found that alcohol also incited hormone-receptor-positive breast cancers in general.

In contrast, alcohol did not significantly increase the risk of invasive ductal carcinomas that were hormone receptor negative.

The study, which used data from the Women's Health Initiative study, appears in the August 12, 2010 Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The findings are sobering (no pun intended): Those women who drank 1 to 2 glasses of a beverage containing alcohol every day doubled their risk of getting breast cancer. The type of alcoholic beverage didn't matter, either. Wine, beer, or a mixed drink--all did the trick.

This is important information for all women, as well as for our teenaged and young-adult daughters who are beginning to make decisions (wise or otherwise) about their lifestyle options they'll choose once they leave the nest.