One drink a day can increase cancer risk
Consuming just one alcoholic drink a day can increase the risk of cancer in women, reports the Guardian today.
A new study, carried out by the University of Oxford as part of the One Million Women research looked into the links between drinking alcohol and cancer and has revealed that having one drink daily – wine, beer or spirits- can increase the risk of contracting breast, liver and rectal cancer.
Cancer cases among 1,280,296 were monitored, and for every 1,000 women, drinking daily was linked to 11 extra cases of breast cancer and one more case of oral cancer and rectal cancer.
Sara Hiom at Cancer Research UK said: “We know that too much alcohol increases the risk of a number of cancers. This latest study shows that even relatively low levels of drinking increase a woman’s risk … The more you cut down on alcohol, the more you reduce your cancer risk.”
Smoking, however, is still the largest cause of cancer, with around one third of all cancer cases being linked to smoking, compared to only 5% being related to alcohol.