Familial Risk of Breast
Cancer Raised by Alcohol
Excerpt By Melissa Schorr, Reuter's Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Drinking alcohol daily may more than double the risk of developing breast cancer among women with a close relative with the disease, but is unlikely to have an effect among women with no such family history, a study at the Mayo Clinic found.

``Our findings suggest that women with a family history of breast cancer, primarily close relatives, are placing themselves at further risk by consuming alcohol daily,'' co-author author Dr. Thomas A. Sellers, professor of epidemiology at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in Rochester, Minnesota, told Reuters Health.

Earlier studies have found a link between breast cancer and drinking, but this was the first study to specify that women who drank daily and had a close blood relative with the disease were at greater risk than those with more distant relatives with breast cancer.

The researchers examined 426 families with a history of breast cancer, including 9,032 women who were either blood relatives of patients or who had married into their families.

The investigators then asked the women to report how much alcohol they had consumed on average throughout their lifetimes, and about other risk factors such as use of hormone replacement therapy, smoking and exercise.

Of the women questioned, 558 had developed breast cancer. Women who were first-degree relatives (mother, sister, daughter) of the women with breast cancer and were daily drinkers had twice the increased risk of breast cancer compared to first-degree relatives who never drank, according to the report in the July 15th issue of the journal Cancer.

By comparison, women who had married into the family but were not blood relatives had no higher risk of breast cancer if they were daily drinkers than if they never drank. Second-degree relatives such as grandparents and aunts only had a slightly higher risk of developing breast cancer if they drank daily.

The researchers did not look specifically at any particular breast cancer genes.

``Our intent was to evaluate the possibility that the importance of alcohol consumption as a risk factor for breast cancer may depend upon underlying genetic factors,'' Sellers said. ``How individuals metabolize alcohol may relate to their risk of breast cancer.''

The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute.

SOURCE: Cancer 2001;92:240-248.

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