Drinking Increases Cancer Risk, Canadian Study Finds

Drinking beer, wine or liquor raises the risk of developing certain types of cancer, according to a study of male drinkers and nondrinkers in Montreal.

The Los Angeles Times reported Aug. 3 that researchers compared cancer prevalence in a group of more than 3,000 male drinkers to a control group of about 500 nondrinkers. They found that men who were daily drinkers had three times the rate of esophageal cancer as those who consumed less than one drink per week; daily drinkers also were three times more likely to develop liver cancer, twice as likely to get pancreatic cancer, and 66 percent more likely to have rectal cancer.

Even moderate drinkers were 67 percent more likely to get stomach cancer than nondrinkers. However, the heaviest drinkers were at the highest risk of cancer, the research showed.

“For the most part we showed that light drinkers were less affected or not affected at all,” said lead author Andrea Benedetti of McGill University. “It is people who drink every day or multiple times a day who are at risk.”

The study was slated to be published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology.