Quit drinking fastest way to reduce cancer risk caused by alcohol

Having one too many can be the cause of hangovers and regrets, but a new study shows alcohol consumption can also cause cancer.

It’s especially bad news for heavy drinkers, as both quantity and consistency of drinking significantly increases the risk.

The Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial involved almost 155,000 participants aged 55-74 years with no history of those cancers and took place over 20 years in the United States.

The study found that people who consumed higher amounts of alcohol across their adult lives were more likely to develop bowel adenomas, which are benign growths which may go on to become cancerous, as well as bowel cancer itself.

A heavy drinker, which the researchers defined as being someone with an average lifetime alcohol intake of 14 or more drinks per week, had a 25 per cent higher risk of developing bowel cancer and a 95 per cent higher risk of developing rectal cancer compared with those who only have one drink a week.

“Our study is one of the first to explore how drinking alcohol over the life course relates to both colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer risk,” said co–senior author Erikka Loftfield of the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, headquartered in Maryland.

While further research is required, researchers say the association between alcohol consumption and cancer could stem from carcinogens produced from alcohol metabolism or alcohol’s effects on gut microbes.

The good news is that quitting drinking, or significantly reducing intake of alcohol, can help reduce the risk.

The PLCO Trial reported alcohol intake during four age periods, grouping participants according to their lifetime alcohol consumption, which allowed researchers to assess cumulative exposure more accurately.

The findings showed individuals with the highest lifetime alcohol intake faced a substantially greater risk of bowel cancer compared with those who drank little or no alcohol, as even moderate drinkers showed an elevated risk when alcohol consumption was sustained over many years.

“While the data on former drinkers were sparse, we were encouraged to see that their risk may return to that of the light drinkers,” Loftfield said.