A “modest but significant” association exists between alcohol consumption and the risk of pancreatic cancer, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) noted on Monday, based on a study piloted by one of its researchers.
This link exists regardless of smoking status and gender, according to the IARC, a specialised agency of the World Health Organisation (WHO) that focuses on cancer research and prevention.
The study, led by an IARC researcher, finds that each 10-gramme-per-day increase in alcohol consumption, equivalent to one standard drink of pure alcohol, is linked to a 3% increase in the risk of pancreatic cancer.
For women, drinking 15 to 30 grammes of alcohol per day, compared to a low consumption rate (0.1 to 5 grammes per day), is associated with a 12% higher risk.
For men, consuming 30 grammes per day is linked to a 15% increase in the risk, which shoots up to 36% if daily alcohol consumption increases to more than 60 grammes.
Published on 20 May in the US scientific journal ‘PLOS Medicine,’ the study provides new evidence that pancreatic cancer could be yet another cancer type linked to alcohol consumption, a connection underestimated until now, according to Dr Pietro Ferrari, Head of the Nutrition and Metabolism Branch at IARC and lead author of the study.
A direct link between alcohol consumption and cancer had already been established for seven types of cancer: colon-rectum, oesophagus, liver, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, and breast. However, evidence specifically linking alcohol to pancreatic cancer had been considered limited or inconclusive until now.
In this latest study, scientists pooled and standardised data from 30 population cohorts in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, involving roughly 2.5 million individuals with a median age of 57 years between 1980 and 2013, among whom 10,067 developed pancreatic cancer.
