New study suggests heavy drinkers face significantly increased cancer risk

Posted on August 4th, 2009

A Study by McGill University found those individuals in the highest consumption category of beers and spirits increased their risk of developing a wide variety of cancers. Using data originally collected for large occupational cancer conducted since the 1980`s, Dr. Beneditti stated, “we saw increased risk for esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer... but the strongest risk was for esophageal and liver cancer.”

"For the most part we showed that light drinkers were less affected or not affected at all," said Benedetti. "It is people who drink every day or multiple times a day who are at risk. This adds to the growing body of evidence that heavy drinking is extremely unhealthy in so many ways. Cancer very much included."

For more information, check out a summary of the study here:

http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/item/?item_id=107816