Dr W Szpak comments: “The most commonly ignored cancer risk is alcohol. Even modest use of alcohol increases ones risk for cancer. If consumed together with cigarette smoking, which is often the case, the risk for cancer is potentiated.”
Please refer to the below Medscape article
Alcohol is a Cancer Risk, ASCO says
by Nick Mulcahy
November 08, 2017 www.medscape.com
However, the ASCO statement authors observe that a meta-analysis found that one drink per day or less was still associated with some elevated risk for squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus, oropharyngeal cancer, and breast cancer.
Defining risk-drinking can be “challenging,” say the statement authors, because the amount of ethanol in a drink varies depending on the type of alcohol (eg, beer, wine, or spirits) and its size.
Conflicting data about the impact of alcohol, especially red wine, on the heart is an “additional barrier” to addressing its related cancer risk. But recent research has cast doubt on those positive health claims studies, revealing multiple confounders, including frequent classification of former and occasional alcohol drinkers as nondrinkers, say the statement authors.
ASCO says that it joins a “growing number” of cancer care and public health organizations that support strategies designed to prevent high-risk alcohol consumption. Its statement offers evidence-based policy recommendations to reduce excessive alcohol consumption, as follows:
•Provide alcohol screening and brief interventions in clinical settings.
•Regulate alcohol outlet density.
•Increase alcohol taxes and prices.
•Maintain limits on days and hours of sale.
•Enhance enforcement of laws prohibiting sales to minors.
•Restrict youth exposure to advertising of alcoholic beverages.
•Resist further privatization of retail alcohol sales in communities with current government control.
•Include alcohol control strategies in comprehensive cancer control plans.
•Support efforts to eliminate the use of “pinkwashing” to market alcoholic beverages (ie, discouraging alcoholic beverage companies from exploiting the color pink or pink ribbons to show a commitment to finding a cure for breast cancer given the evidence that alcohol consumption is linked to an increased risk for breast cancer).