It is well known that heavy drinking raises the chance of cancer. How about drinking a little bit of alcohol every day, then?
A recent study showed that frequent drinking was a more important risk factor for gastrointestinal (GI) cancer than alcohol consumed per occasion.
The research team, led by Professor Yoo Jung-eun of family medicine at the Seoul National University Hospital Gangnam Center and Professor Shin Dong-wook at Samsung Medical Center, followed up about 11 million Korean adults aged 40 or more, who underwent a national health screening program between 2009 and 2011 and who did not get any cancer diagnosis, until 2017.
The research team divided the participants into nondrinker group, mild drinker group (0-104g per week), moderate drinker group (105-209g per week), and heavy drinker group (210g or more per week).
The heavy drinker group consumed about three bottles of soju per week.
According to the medical community, adult men are not recommended to drink more than 210g of alcohol per week.
The research team compared and analyzed the risk of GI cancer in the esophagus, stomach, colon, liver, biliary tract, and pancreas, according to the quantity of alcohol consumption and frequency of drinking.
The results showed that GI cancer risk increased along with the amount of weekly consumption of alcohol.
The GI cancer risk of the heavy drinker group was 1.28 times higher than that of the nondrinker group.
The frequency of drinking had a larger impact. For example, people who drank every day had a 1.39 times higher risk of developing GI cancer than nondrinkers.
People who drank five to seven shots of alcohol per occasion had a 1.15-fold risk of GI cancer compared to the nondrinker group.
However, drinking more than seven shots did not increase the risk of GI cancer meaningfully.
The research team said the frequency of drinking was a more important risk factor for GI cancer than the amount of alcohol consumption per occasion.
“This study showed that not only the amount of alcohol consumption but the frequency of alcohol drinking was highly associated with GI cancer,” Yoo said. “People should be cautioned about frequent drinking such as adding alcohol to meals or drinking a little bit of alcohol alone often.”
The study was published in the latest issue of JAMA Network Open.