Alcohol is linked to 4% of cancers detected in 2020. Some of them are associated with “light and moderate” consumption.
- Alcohol has been classified as a human carcinogen by the IARC since 1988.
- There were 6.3 million new cases of cancer in 2020 worldwide.
- Alcohol consumption is associated with a higher risk of cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, colon, rectum, liver and breast.
Alcohol is harmful to health. In The Lancet Oncology, researchers from the International Agency for Research (IARC) on cancer prove it once again. According to their findings, more than 740,000 cancers detected in 2020 are associated with alcohol. Most of them affect people whose consumption of alcoholic beverages was significant, but more than 103,000 cases correspond to people with a consumption “moderate“, that is to say about two glasses of alcohol a day.
Inequalities between countries and between genders
Scientists point out that the proportion of cancers associated with alcohol varies greatly depending on the region of the world. Cases are few in North African countries and West Asia. East Asia, Eastern Europe and Central Europe are the areas where alcohol-related cancers are most common. “Trends show that although individual alcohol consumption is decreasing in many European countries, it is increasing in Asian countries, such as India or China, and in sub-Saharan Africa.“, underlines Harriet Rumgay, member of the IARC, in a communicated.
Mongolia has the highest rate of alcohol-related cancer compared to its population: 560 cases, or 10% of total cancers. In Kuwait, the rate is below 0% with less than 5 cases. In European countries, the rate is 5% in France, and 4% in Germany and the United Kingdom. This study also showed that women and men were not affected in the same way by this risk: of all the cases of cancer associated with alcohol, 77% concern men. As for the quantities of alcohol, the more you drink, the greater the risk. Heavy alcohol consumption is associated with 39% of new cases of cancer, moderate consumption with 14% of them.
How was this study carried out?
The data for this study was obtained by combining two types of information: the levels of alcohol consumption per person and per country in 2010 and the number of new cases of cancer recorded in 2020, which are generally associated with alcohol consumption. ‘alcohol.
In most cases, it is cancer of the esophagus, liver or breast. For many years, science has shown that alcoholic beverages are a factor in cancer. When alcohol enters the body, it generates the production of chemicals that can degrade DNA and alter hormone production.
A potential impact of Covid-19 on data
“The Covid-19 pandemic has increased alcohol consumption in some countries“, adds Harriet Rumgay. It has also had consequences on the diagnosis of cancers. According to Unicancer, cancer diagnoses fell by 7 to 23% in the first seven months of the pandemic, depending on the geographical area. In the coming years, this could cause between 1,000 and 6,000 additional cancer-related deaths.
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