Alcohol tied to breast cancer recurrence

Post-menopausal women who have three to four alcoholic beverages a week of any sort have a significantly higher risk that their breast cancer will come back.

More than 400,000 women die from breast cancer worldwide each year. Studies in the past have shown that alcohol use can increase the chances a woman will develop breast cancer, but few studies have looked at the role of alcohol consumption in women who already have had a breast cancer diagnosis. To study this, researchers followed 1,900 women in California who survived early-stage invasive breast cancer between 1997 and 2000. The women reported their own level of alcohol consumption. The women were followed for eight years.

It was found that women who drank three to four alcoholic beverages experienced a 30 percent increase in the risk that their breast cancer would come back. Half of these women drank alcohol - wine, beer and liquor - to some degree. The study compared these with breast cancer survivors who did not drink. The more alcohol they drank, the higher their risk was for cancer recurrence.

The above findings could be attributed to the fact that alcohol can affect levels of estrogen circulating in the body and can increase the rate at which the body processes estrogen. Since many breast cancers are fed by estrogen, moderate to heavy alcohol consumption may fuel breast cancer and its recurrence.

The researchers recommended that women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer should consider limiting alcohol consumption to less than three drinks a week, especially if they are overweight or obese.