Both red and white wine up breast-cancer risk

Washington, Mar 9 (ANI): A new study, led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has revealed that both red and white wine are equal offenders when it comes to increasing breast-cancer risk.

"We were interested in teasing out red wine's effects on breast-cancer risk. There is reason to suspect that red wine might have beneficial effects based on previous studies of heart disease and prostate cancer," said lead author Polly Newcomb, Ph.D., M.P.H., head of the Cancer Prevention Program in the Public Health Sciences Division at the Hutchinson Center.

"The general evidence is that alcohol consumption overall increases breast-cancer risk, but the other studies made us wonder whether red wine might in fact have some positive value," Newcomb added.

Instead, the researchers found no compelling reason to choose red wine over white wine.

"We found no difference between red or white wine in relation to breast-cancer risk.

Neither appears to have any benefits. If a woman drinks, she should do so in moderation - no more than one drink a day. And if a woman chooses red wine, she should do so because she likes the taste, not because she thinks it may reduce her risk of breast cancer," Newcomb said.

The researchers found that women who consumed 14 or more drinks per week, regardless of the type (wine, liquor or beer), faced a 24 percent increase in breast cancer compared with non-drinkers.

For the study, the researchers interviewed 6,327 women with breast cancer and 7,558 age-matched controls about their frequency of alcohol consumption (red wine, white wine, liquor and beer) and other breast-cancer risk factors, such as age at first pregnancy, family history of breast cancer and postmenopausal hormone use.

The study participants, ages 20 to 69, were from Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The frequency of alcohol consumption was similar in both groups, and equal proportions of women in both groups reported consuming red and white wine.

The study has been published in the March issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. (ANI)