Breast cancer-alcohol link seen in study

Women who have an occasional glass of wine with dinner -- as few as three drinks a week -- have a higher risk of breast cancer, a new study has found.

In the largest-ever examination of light drinking and breast cancer risk, researchers discovered women who had three to six drinks a week raised their risk of the disease by 15 percent.

Earlier studies had linked more frequent drinking to a higher cancer risk.

"It's not that women should stop drinking. That's not the take-home message," said Dr. Wendy Chen of Brigham Women's Hospital in Boston, the lead author of the study.

"I personally do not recommend to my patients that they stop drinking."

Chen -- a native of Garden City and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School -- advised women to weigh their personal breast cancer risk factors with the known benefits of moderate drinking.

The American Heart Association has long supported moderate red wine consumption because of its cardiac benefits.

The research, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, involved more than 100,000 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study.

The research project has followed nurses in the United States for three decades, producing reams of data.

The new study found that 5 to 10 grams of alcohol a day raised breast cancer risk by 15 percent.

The risk rose 10 percent for every 10 grams a day above that level -- regardless of the type of alcohol consumed. Four ounces of wine contain 11 grams of alcohol, a 12-ounce beer has 12.8 grams, and a shot of whiskey has 14 grams.

The research doesn't prove alcohol causes breast cancer, said Dr. Brian O'Hea, director of the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Care Center at Stony Brook University Medical Center.

"It's an association -- not a cause and effect," O'Hea said. "So maybe there are some other factors linking alcohol with increased breast cancer risk.

"Fifteen percent is a very small increase," O'Hea said. "That would be a few extra women per every 1,000."

On Long Island, breast cancer strikes 140 women per 100,000. A 15 percent escalation in risk, O'Hea said, would affect 161 women per 100,000.

Dr. Lora Weiselberg, chief of breast cancer services with the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, said alcohol alone does not lead to breast cancer.

"The reason people get breast cancer is because of an accumulation of various things that happen in a lifetime," she said.

Weiselberg added, "Alcohol consumption can add to that."