HHS HealthBeat (December 2, 2010)

Alcohol and breast cancer

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Alcohol use can raise the risk of breast cancer. But which type of breast cancer? One way to look is by where the tumor starts – for instance, in the lobes that can produce milk, or in the ducts that can secrete milk.

At the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Christopher Li examined data on alcohol use among almost 3,000 women whose cancer had spread:

``Alcohol use increased the risk almost twofold of a subtype of breast cancer called lobular breast cancer, but did not increase risk of the most common type of breast cancer, which is ductal cancer, which accounts for about 70 to 80 percent of all the disease. (12 seconds)

Even light drinking had an effect.

The study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 7, 2011