Alcohol consumption caused cancer in 100,000 moderate drinkers last year

Alcoholic beverages can cause cancer.

It is something contrasted by science, but it is not known by the majority of the population, nor do governments act with the necessary firmness.

A new study has just updated this direct relationship, after analyzing data from the last decade: worldwide, alcohol was responsible for some 740,000 tumors in 2020 alone. This means that more than 4% of global cancers are due to the intake of alcoholic beverages and, therefore, totally avoidable and preventable.

The study, published in

, points out important differences by region and sex: three out of four cancers caused by alcohol were suffered by men and the areas of the planet most affected are the Far East and Central and Eastern Europe.

For example, in Mongolia alcohol causes 10% of tumors, in Romania 7% and in China and Russia around 6%.

In Spain, 4.4% of cancers diagnosed in 2020 are caused by alcoholic beverages, some 11,600 diseases in total.

"Our study highlights the contribution of even relatively low levels of alcohol consumption to cancer rates, which is concerning"

Harriet Rumgay, International Agency for Research on Cancer

Those responsible for the study call for more measures against this problem by the authorities, as pointed out by the lead author, Harriet Rumgay, of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC): “We urgently need to raise awareness about the link between the alcohol consumption and cancer risk among policy makers and the general public. The local context is essential for a successful policy on alcohol consumption and will be key to reducing the cases of cancer related to drinking. "

Rumgay recalls that these cancers are not only suffered by those most exposed, those who drink the most: “Our study highlights the contribution of even.

relatively low levels of alcohol consumption at cancer rates, which is concerning, but also suggests that small changes in public drinking behavior could have a positive impact on future cancer rates. "

According to the data provided by the study, almost 15% of global cancers caused by alcohol intake are suffered by moderate drinkers, that is, people who drink less than two beers a day.

In total, more than 100,000 people discovered cancer in 2020.

“There is no safe consumption of alcohol.

Between 4% and 5% of cancers in the world are caused by alcohol, that is clear "

Álvaro Rodríguez-Lescure, president of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology

Put in a global context, it is a piece of information that requires action.

Because the sales data would assume that all people over the age of 15 consume, on average, one alcoholic drink a day.

But since only half of adults drink, that means real drinkers consume at least two drinks a day, according to researcher Amy Justice of Yale University, in an accompanying article in

.

A sufficient amount to be at risk of cancer due to these drinks, apart from many other conditions associated with their intake, such as cardiovascular, mental, liver and alcoholism diseases.

For Álvaro Rodríguez-Lescure, president of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM), the main conclusion of this study is that “there is no safe consumption of alcohol”.

“There is no threshold of consumption from which the risk begins or disappears.

Obviously, there is a dose-effect relationship: the higher the intake, the greater the risk.

But there are also milder intakes, ”says Rodríguez-Lescure, who has not participated in the study.

"Adding cancer warnings to labels, similar to tobacco, could discourage people from buying alcoholic products"

Study in The Lancet Oncology

The oncologist regrets that the population does not know enough about this direct association between alcoholic beverages and cancer of the breast, mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon and rectum. The study authors analyzed the incidence of these types of cancer in regions and countries, along with alcohol consumption in these same areas since 2010, the time required for a tumor to develop due to this habit (so the pandemic would not have played a role yet). "Between 4% and 5% of cancers in the world are caused by alcohol, so clear", sums up the president of the SEOM. And ditch: "They are avoidable."

This is what the authors of the work insist on: governments must take action. They point out strategies for public health, reducing the availability of alcohol, fiscal measures, warnings and even marketing bans. “There is little awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer risk among the general public, but adding cancer warnings to alcohol labels, similar to those used on tobacco, could discourage people from buying products. alcoholics and increase awareness of the causal link with cancer, "the study proposes. In addition, the alcohol industry is determined to confuse the population about this risk.

The only good news from the work is that the proportion of cancers caused by alcoholic beverages would be decreasing, judging by the results of other similar previous studies: it was calculated that it caused 5.5% of cancer cases in 2012, 4, 8% of cancer deaths in 2016 and 4.9% of these deaths in 2019. Overall, there was a 5.5% decrease in the global alcohol-attributable cancer death rate between 2000 and 2016. But Rumgay , in a note from

, warns against triumphalism: “Trends suggest that although there is a decrease in alcohol consumption per person in many European countries, alcohol consumption is increasing in Asian countries such as China and India, and in sub-Saharan Africa.

In addition, there is evidence that the covid-19 pandemic has increased the rates of alcohol consumption in some countries ”.

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