Study Disputes Breast Cancer Risk of Alcohol

A federal study has found no suggestion that drinking alcohol increases a woman’s chance of breast cancer, a result that clashes with recent research.

“Conclusive statements or general recommendations concerning the relationship between alcohol consumption and breast cancer seem premature,” said Susan Chu of the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Perhaps some alcohol-related factors, rather than alcohol itself, account for the effect shown by other test subjects, she said. “We have difficulty explaining why our study differs from those other studies,” she said.

Nobody has shown any biological reason why alcohol would raise a woman’s breast cancer risk, she said.

At a meeting Sunday of science writers sponsored by the American Cancer Society, Chu described results of a study of 3,252 women between the ages of 20 and 54 with newly diagnosed breast cancer and 2,971 other women chosen for comparison.

When data from the two groups were compared, Chu said: “We found no relationship between drinking in the past five years and breast cancer risk.”

Two studies released in May that did find an increase in risk gained a lot of attention, she said.

The studies, directed by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health and the National Cancer Institute, cited an apparent increase in risk with as few as three drinks a week.

But the principal authors of both studies said the data was not strong enough to recommend changes in drinking habits for American women.

The cancer society has no formal recommendation on alcohol and breast cancer.

In another paper presented at the science writers’ conference, a researcher cited data challenging the link others have found between dietary fat and cancer.

Calories are the dietary villain rather than fat, said David Klurfeld of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, who studied rats that were chemically treated to encourage tumor growth.