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Source for all the folks asking specifically about risks: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/alcohol/alcohol-fact-sheet https://www.canc

Source for all the folks asking specifically about risks: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/alcohol/alcohol-fact-sheet https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/a... > an estimated 3.5% of cancer deaths in the United States (about 19,500 deaths) were alcohol related > Moderate drinkers have 1.8-fold higher risks of oral cavity (excluding the lips) and pharynx (throat) cancers and 1.4-fold higher risks of larynx (voice box) cancers than non-drinkers, and heavy drinkers have 5-fold higher risks of oral cavity and pharynx cancers and 2.6-fold higher risks of larynx cancers > esophageal cancer ... range from 1.3-fold higher for light drinking to nearly 5-fold higher for heavy drinking > Heavy alcohol consumption is associated with approximately 2-fold increased risks of two types of liver cancer > light drinkers have a slightly increased (1.04-fold higher) risk of breast cancer, compared with nondrinkers. The risk increase is greater in moderate drinkers (1.23-fold higher) and heavy drinkers (1.6-fold higher) > Moderate to heavy alcohol consumption is associated with 1.2- to 1.5-fold increased risks of cancers of the colon and rectum

lordnacho 6y ago
My gripe with cancer stats presented in this way is that they tend to only give relative risks. It matters what the risk was in the first place. What's the oral cavity cancer risk that I'm increasing by 80% if I drink? If it's 10% without alcohol I'll be teetotal. If it's 1/10000 I'm going to ignore the cancer risk.
frereubu 6y ago
The crucial data that's missing from those figures (although they're probably buried in the references somewhere) is what the initial risk of cancer is. If the risk of cancer of the larynx in non-drinkers is 0.0001%, then a 1.4-fold increase means that a moderate drinker has a risk of 0.00014%, an absolute increase of 0.00004%. Instead if it's 20%, then a 1.4-fold increase is 28%, an absolute increase of 8%. You could potentially extrapolate back from the 3.5% of cancer deaths being "alcohol related", but that gives no context around the related risks of light / moderate / heavy drinking.
- srg0 6y ago
  This study provides absolute estimate: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-6576-9 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s... 10 out of 1000 men, and 14 out of 1000 women; those are excess cancer deaths which can be attributed to moderate alcohol consumption (one bottle of wine per week) > The UK’s Million Women Study reported an excess incidence of 15 per 1000 cancer cases for each additional alcoholic drink consumed per day, 11 due to breast cancer [14, 16].
p1esk 6y ago
Is this risk proportional to the strength of the alcohol you consume? I imagine a shot of 40% whiskey would be much worse for your throat than a bottle of 5% beer, despite the same total amount of alcohol.
- dalke 6y ago
  https://monographs.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/mono96.pdf https://monographs.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/mono96... > Epidemiological evidence indicates that drinking alcoholic beverages is causally related to cancer of the oesophagus. There is no indication that the effect of alcoholic beverage consumption is dependent on the type of beverage
  - p1esk 6y ago
    Interesting, thanks!
srg0 6y ago
Also: > One bottle of wine per week is associated with an increased absolute lifetime cancer risk for non-smokers of 1.0% (men) and 1.4% (women). The overall absolute increase in cancer risk for one bottle of wine per week equals that of five (men) or ten cigarettes per week (women). Gender differences result from levels of moderate drinking leading to a 0.8% absolute risk of breast cancer in female non-smokers. Source: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-6576-9 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s...

lordnacho 6y ago

My gripe with cancer stats presented in this way is that they tend to only give relative risks. It matters what the risk was in the first place. What's the oral cavity cancer risk that I'm increasing by 80% if I drink? If it's 10% without alcohol I'll be teetotal. If it's 1/10000 I'm going to ignore the cancer risk.

frereubu 6y ago

The crucial data that's missing from those figures (although they're probably buried in the references somewhere) is what the initial risk of cancer is. If the risk of cancer of the larynx in non-drinkers is 0.0001%, then a 1.4-fold increase means that a moderate drinker has a risk of 0.00014%, an absolute increase of 0.00004%. Instead if it's 20%, then a 1.4-fold increase is 28%, an absolute increase of 8%. You could potentially extrapolate back from the 3.5% of cancer deaths being "alcohol related", but that gives no context around the related risks of light / moderate / heavy drinking.

srg0 6y ago
This study provides absolute estimate: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-6576-9 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s... 10 out of 1000 men, and 14 out of 1000 women; those are excess cancer deaths which can be attributed to moderate alcohol consumption (one bottle of wine per week) > The UK’s Million Women Study reported an excess incidence of 15 per 1000 cancer cases for each additional alcoholic drink consumed per day, 11 due to breast cancer [14, 16].

p1esk 6y ago

Is this risk proportional to the strength of the alcohol you consume? I imagine a shot of 40% whiskey would be much worse for your throat than a bottle of 5% beer, despite the same total amount of alcohol.

dalke 6y ago
https://monographs.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/mono96.pdf https://monographs.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/mono96... > Epidemiological evidence indicates that drinking alcoholic beverages is causally related to cancer of the oesophagus. There is no indication that the effect of alcoholic beverage consumption is dependent on the type of beverage
- p1esk 6y ago
  Interesting, thanks!

srg0 6y ago

Also: > One bottle of wine per week is associated with an increased absolute lifetime cancer risk for non-smokers of 1.0% (men) and 1.4% (women). The overall absolute increase in cancer risk for one bottle of wine per week equals that of five (men) or ten cigarettes per week (women). Gender differences result from levels of moderate drinking leading to a 0.8% absolute risk of breast cancer in female non-smokers. Source: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-019-6576-9 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s...