Moderate Alcohol Consumption and Cancer Risk in Women

Most data about alcohol intake and cancer risk come from high-consuming men. Investigators for the Million Women Study capitalized on the cohort’s huge size to perform a detailed, prospective analysis of moderate alcohol intake and risk for a broad array of cancers. A total of 1.3 million U.K. women who underwent screening mammograms answered survey questions about weekly alcohol consumption at baseline and 3 years later (mean age at baseline, 55; mean follow-up, 7.2 years). One drink (125 mL wine, 284 mL beer, or 23 mL spirits) was estimated to contain 10 g of alcohol. Information about incident cancers (68,775) was obtained from a national registry.

At baseline, 24% of study participants reported consuming no alcohol, 29% reported weekly c…