Borrowed from WSJ 5 29 2017
One glass of wine could increase your risk of breast cancer, according to a new study by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer
By Sumathi Reddy
Bottom’s down: A new report finds that drinking even one glass of alcohol a day could increase the risk of developing breast cancer, while vigorous exercise mitigates the damage.
The type of alcohol doesn’t matter—wine, beer and hard liquor all pose the same risk.
The report, a joint effort of the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund, was a review of 119 studies looking at how diet and physical activity impacts the risk of developing breast cancer in pre- and post-menopausal women. The studies included data on 12 million women and 260,000 breast cancer cases. The studies don’t show that alcohol causes breast cancer, but they do show an association or link.
A small glass of wine or beer a day—with about 10 grams of alcohol content—increases the risk of pre-menopausal women developing breast cancer by 5% and post-menopausal women by 9%, the authors concluded. A standard drink has 14 grams of alcohol.
“One thing that surprised me was that even at such a low level, drinking alcohol was statistically significant,” said Anne McTiernan, a cancer prevention researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and lead author on the report.
Experts aren’t clear on why alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer. One theory is that alcohol increases the levels of estrogen in the blood, which is a risk factor for developing breast cancer. Also, alcohol can damage DNA, which is a pre-cursor to cancer.
Susan K. Boolbol, chief of breast surgery at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan, noted that pooling many studies can lead to an imperfect analysis. The studies are retrospective so they involve asking women how much they drank, which isn’t always reliable data.
She said the important message is that all types of alcohol are equally harmful. “I have this discussion with patients all the time,” she said. “They say, ‘I only drink wine, or I only drink beer, and that doesn’t count.’ This was very, very specific that it does.”
Still, she said it’s unrealistic to recommend to patients that they completely abstain from alcohol. “We have to be reality-based,” she said. “Once we start saying “don’t do this, don’t do that,’ we lose patients. They stop listening. So I think it’s about moderation.”
Other takeaways from the report: Vigorous exercise lowered the risk of developing breast cancer by 17% in pre-menopausal women and 10% in post-menopausal women compared with women who were the least active.
Even general physical activity, such as gardening, helps. Post-menopausal women who were active were linked to a 13% lower risk of developing breast cancer, whereas there was no statistically significant benefit for pre-menopausal women.
The difference between the benefits of exercise for pre and post-menopausal women surprised Therese Bevers, medical director of the cancer prevention center at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “I even found myself giving a different recommendation yesterday to one of my patients who is pre-menopausal,” said Dr. Bevers. She told the patient that it’s really vigorous exercise that is linked to reducing the risk of breast cancer whereas moderate exercise may not confer the same benefit.
Being overweight or obese was associated with a greater risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women, according to the study. Dr. McTiernan said each five unit increase in body-mass index was associated with a 12% increased risk.
Surprisingly, in pre-menopausal women, overweight and obese women had a decreased risk of developing breast cancer with each five unit increase in BMI resulting in a 18% reduced risk. But experts say that does not translate into recommending weight gain for such women, which comes with increased risks for many other health conditions.
Write to Sumathi Reddy at sumathi.reddy@wsj.com
One glass of wine could increase your risk of breast cancer, according to a new study by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer
By Sumathi Reddy
Bottom’s down: A new report finds that drinking even one glass of alcohol a day could increase the risk of developing breast cancer, while vigorous exercise mitigates the damage.
The type of alcohol doesn’t matter—wine, beer and hard liquor all pose the same risk.
The report, a joint effort of the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund, was a review of 119 studies looking at how diet and physical activity impacts the risk of developing breast cancer in pre- and post-menopausal women. The studies included data on 12 million women and 260,000 breast cancer cases. The studies don’t show that alcohol causes breast cancer, but they do show an association or link.
A small glass of wine or beer a day—with about 10 grams of alcohol content—increases the risk of pre-menopausal women developing breast cancer by 5% and post-menopausal women by 9%, the authors concluded. A standard drink has 14 grams of alcohol.
“One thing that surprised me was that even at such a low level, drinking alcohol was statistically significant,” said Anne McTiernan, a cancer prevention researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and lead author on the report.
Experts aren’t clear on why alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer. One theory is that alcohol increases the levels of estrogen in the blood, which is a risk factor for developing breast cancer. Also, alcohol can damage DNA, which is a pre-cursor to cancer.
Susan K. Boolbol, chief of breast surgery at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan, noted that pooling many studies can lead to an imperfect analysis. The studies are retrospective so they involve asking women how much they drank, which isn’t always reliable data.
She said the important message is that all types of alcohol are equally harmful. “I have this discussion with patients all the time,” she said. “They say, ‘I only drink wine, or I only drink beer, and that doesn’t count.’ This was very, very specific that it does.”
Still, she said it’s unrealistic to recommend to patients that they completely abstain from alcohol. “We have to be reality-based,” she said. “Once we start saying “don’t do this, don’t do that,’ we lose patients. They stop listening. So I think it’s about moderation.”
Other takeaways from the report: Vigorous exercise lowered the risk of developing breast cancer by 17% in pre-menopausal women and 10% in post-menopausal women compared with women who were the least active.
Even general physical activity, such as gardening, helps. Post-menopausal women who were active were linked to a 13% lower risk of developing breast cancer, whereas there was no statistically significant benefit for pre-menopausal women.
The difference between the benefits of exercise for pre and post-menopausal women surprised Therese Bevers, medical director of the cancer prevention center at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “I even found myself giving a different recommendation yesterday to one of my patients who is pre-menopausal,” said Dr. Bevers. She told the patient that it’s really vigorous exercise that is linked to reducing the risk of breast cancer whereas moderate exercise may not confer the same benefit.
Being overweight or obese was associated with a greater risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women, according to the study. Dr. McTiernan said each five unit increase in body-mass index was associated with a 12% increased risk.
Surprisingly, in pre-menopausal women, overweight and obese women had a decreased risk of developing breast cancer with each five unit increase in BMI resulting in a 18% reduced risk. But experts say that does not translate into recommending weight gain for such women, which comes with increased risks for many other health conditions.
Write to Sumathi Reddy at sumathi.reddy@wsj.com
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