Fiona Smedley, dietician from the Primrose came and spoke to us about healthy eating particularly as it can help our fight against cancer.

At the May meeting, Fiona Smedley, dietician from the Primrose came and spoke to us about healthy eating particularly as it can help our fight against cancer.  She has passed on the information below on the link between alcohol and breast cancer risk. The evidence that drinking alcohol can increase breast cancer risk comes from a report published by Cancer Research UK in the British Journal of Cancer in November 2002. 

The strength of the study is that it pooled in results from 53 previous studies, so that it was able to include large numbers of people.  The potential weaknesses are that results from different studies (collecting slightly different information in a slightly different way) were pooled together, which can lead to problems in interpretation of the results.  Also, most people will tend to underestimate rather than overestimate when asked how much alcohol they drink, and this could affect the results too.  However, the finding of the study was a clear relationship between drinking more alcohol, and higher risk of breast cancer.

The theoretical mechanism for this effect is increasing levels of oestrogen and testosterone in the blood – a mechanism which would also increase risk of cancer recurrence. There is also data from 3 large population studies (where dietary habits are compared with disease incidence), which all concluded that women drinking more than 1-2 alcoholic drinks daily were at higher risk of breast cancer, but that folate intake can offset this risk.   Based on the above, and taking into account the high calorie content of alcoholic drinks, and how alcohol fits into healthy eating more generally, Fiona concludes that women who have completed treatment for breast cancer, and want to think about making healthy lifestyle choices, should consider reducing their alcohol intake if they are taking more than 1-2 alcoholic drinks per day.  A healthy balanced diet as recommended for the general population will include good levels of folate, and also fits in with these research findings.

References:
British Journal of Cancer volume 87, pages 1234-1245 (published 2002)      
Journal of National Cancer Institute volume 92, pages 266-269 (published 2000)
Journal of American Medical Association volume 281, pages 1632-1637 (published 1999)
British Medical Journal volume 331, page 807 (published 2005)