Alcohol consumption does not affect breast cancer survival

Drinking alcohol has no impact on breast cancer survival, a new study has claimed.
Although previous research has linked alcohol consumption to an increased risk of developing breast cancer, a new study has found that alcohol consumption does not impact survival from the disease.
In fact, a modest survival benefit was found in women who were moderate drinkers before and after diagnosis due to a reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, a major cause of mortality among breast cancer survivors.
"Our findings should be reassuring to women who have breast cancer because their past experience consuming alcohol is unlikely to impact their survival after diagnosis," said Polly Newcomb, a member of the Public Health Sciences Division and head of the Cancer Prevention Program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who led the study.

"This study also provides additional support for the beneficial effect of moderate alcohol consumption with respect to cardiovascular disease," said Newcomb.
The study was based on data from almost 23,000 women with breast cancer who participated in the Collaborative Breast Cancer Study.

The study began in 1988 and was conducted in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. In a smaller follow-up study between 1998 and 2001, about 5,000 study participants with breast cancer were also sent a follow-up questionnaire about their alcohol consumption habits after diagnosis.
Among study participants with a history of breast cancer, the researchers found that the amount and type of alcohol a woman reported consuming in the years before her diagnosis was not associated with her likelihood from dying from breast cancer.

However, the researchers also found that those who consumed a moderate level of alcohol - three to six drinks per week - in the years before their cancer diagnosis were 15 per cent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease than non-drinkers.
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.