Drinking Raises Cancer Risk for Middle-Age Women

Even one drink a day poses danger, large study finds

Research involving more than a million middle-age women finds that even moderate drinking raises risks for breast, liver and other cancers.

"Even relatively low levels of drinking -- on the order of one alcoholic drink per day -- increase a woman's risk of developing cancer," said lead researcher Naomi Allen, from the cancer epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. "Because a high proportion of women drink low amounts of alcohol regularly and because most of the increased risk is for breast cancer, the risk among women associated with drinking alcohol is of particular importance."

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The report is published in the Feb. 24 online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.