Study Estimates Linkage Between Cancer and Alcohol consumption

Jul, 2021 - By SMI

A new research was conducted to analyse the association between cancer and alcohol as well as to determine the impact of alcohol-related cancer across the world.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) conducted a new research to estimate the number of newly diagnosed cancer cases of last year that is directly linked to alcohol consumption. The outcomes of the research evaluated that around 740,000 new cases of cancer could be attributed to alcohol consumption that is almost 4% of overall new cancer cases in 2020 across the world. A team of researchers from Cambridge University demonstrated the role of alcohol in damaging DNA and activating cancer cells in the body.

Researchers observed that individuals consuming large amount of alcohol are linked to cancer cases. Alcohol affects the functioning of liver, oesophagus, and breast region and may lead to activation of cancerous cells in these parts of body. It is also noted that moderate drinking could also be the reason of one of the seven types of alcohol-linked cancers. However, the link between cancer and alcohol differs from region to region accordingly. It is perceived that China has 6% of new cases of cancer linked with alcohol consumption, while there is around 3% of new cancer cases linked with alcohol in the United States.

Researchers stated that consumption of per-capita alcohol is estimated from commercial sales numbers. Although it was found that commercially recorded sales data are not accurate as around a quarter of all global alcohol consumption is not recorded in data and occurs outside the records. So, it’s concluded that the current findings aren’t accurate and more likely to under-estimate the total impact of alcohol over cancer. The research was mainly carried out to increase the awareness of linkage between cancer and alcohol. Researchers recommended a number of policy-based public health interventions to create awareness and reduce the impact of alcohol-related cancer across the world.