Study says alcohol consumption led to 741k new global cancer cases

In 2020, there were an estimated 19.3 million new cancer cases worldwide, and a new study shows increased alcohol consumption last year can be tied to nearly 750,000 of those cases.

It’s no secret that alcohol consumption has increased throughout the pandemic. A recent survey from the American Addiction Centers found 1 in 5 Texans classified themselves as "heavyweight" drinkers, and that the average Texan’s alcohol tolerance, has increased by 38 percent.

Dr. Rodney Young, a family physician at Texas Tech, says all that drinking can leave a toll. Alcohol is actually a group one carcinogen, and as the body metabolizes it, cells are damaged.

“That's sort of the seeds for cancer to grow and proliferate with abnormal cells that are that are not picked up and detected by our immune surveillance," said Dr. Young.

According to a study from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an estimated 741,000 new cases of cancer, globally, were associated with alcohol consumption.

“For most of them, the common thread is it's somewhere along the GI(gastrointestinal) tract,” said Dr. Young. “Cancers of the mouth and the throat are more common.”

Cancer types with the largest number of new cases were esophageal, liver, and female breast cancer.

“Increased estrogen levels happen with increased alcohol consumption, and that's probably a part of the link of why breast cancer is more prevalent in people that drink alcohol," Dr. Young said, adding different levels of drinking increase risk levels differently.

“Somewhere between one and a half times as likely, to some cancers, it's perhaps five times as likely,” said Dr. Young. “That seems to correlate in many instances with the volume of alcohol consumed.”

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Dr. Young says an easy way to avoid increasing your cancer risk is to decrease alcohol consumption, at least down to moderate.