Colorectal Cancer: Increased Alcohol Consumption Raises Risk

Experts are warning that regardless of one’s genetic risk, a high alcohol consumption can be significantly associated with an increased risk for colorectal cancer.

With information from a new study, researchers have said that drinking at least 25g of alcohol daily in one’s lifetime is associated with a 1.8-fold increased risk for early-onset colorectal cancer in their findings that was published in The Lancet’s eClinical Medicine.

It was reported that an abstinent, moderate-high and high lifetime alcohol consumption was significantly associated with a 16%, 22% and 51% higher risk for colorectal cancer when compared with a low lifetime alcohol consumption. Similar associations with cancer risk applied to recent alcohol consumption.

Data revealed that an average lifetime alcohol consumption of at least 25 g daily was associated with a 1.8-fold increased risk for early-onset cancer and a 1.3-fold increased risk for late-onset cancer.

The Researchers stated that the relationship between the dosage of alcohol consumption and cancer risk were similar for participants with low and high polygenic risk scores. However, while long-term high consumption of beer and liquor was associated with an increased risk for colorectal cancer, long-term high consumption of wine was not.

The researcher had carried out a population-based, case-control study in order to assess the association between alcohol consumption and colorectal cancer across polygenic risk score levels for 140 colorectal cancer-related loci. A total of 4,131 control cases and 5,104 colorectal cancer cases were evaluated. Among the participants who had cancer, 60.3% were men with an average age of 69 years.

Genetic Risk Equivalent (GRE) scores were used to compare the effects of alcohol consumption and polygenetic risk scores on cancer risk. Participants had self-reported their alcohol consumption, which was categorised as abstinent (0 g/d), low (< 12 g/d), low-moderate (12g/d to 25 g/d) moderate-high (25 g/d to 50 g/d) or high (50 g/d) consumption.

However, they also stated that further research is needed in order to gain a more precise estimate of the impact of various patterns of alcohol consumption in combination with a polygenic risk score, other lifestyle factors and comorbidities across various ethnic groups in the total population and young adults in particular.

All in all, the American Cancer Society is recommending that forpeople who drink alcohol to limit their intake to no more than two units per day for men and one drink a day for women, while the European Code Against Cancer recommends limiting or cutting out alcohol consumption.