Alcohol intake may increase breast cancer
Written By: Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Print
Email
Published - Aug 23, 2010
Alcohol increases the risk of lobular and hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, but not necessarily invasive ductal carcinomas, according to a study published August 23, 2010 online in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Although alcohol intake is an established risk factor for overall breast cancer, few studies have looked at the relationship between alcohol use and breast cancer risk by subtype of breast cancer. While some studies have shown alcohol use is more strongly related to risk of hormone receptor-positive (estrogen receptor and/or progesterone receptor-positive) breast cancer, not many have looked at breast cancer risk by histology, or whether a tumor is ductal—in the milk ducts—or lobular—in the milk-producing lobules.
To understand how alcohol may influence sub-types of breast cancer, Christopher I. Li, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center conducted an observational study of a subset of patients in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study, conducted between 1993 and 1998, which included 87,724 postmenopausal women aged 50-79 years.