Alcohol spurs cancer growth
By Janet Raloff
From San Francisco, at the Experimental Biology 2006 meeting
At least in mice, downing the human equivalent of two to four alcoholic drinks per day dramatically spurs the growth of an existing cancer.
Epidemiologic studies have shown that people who regularly drink alcohol face an increased risk of certain cancers, notably breast malignancies. Last year, researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson showed that alcohol spurred the development of new blood vessels to feed bone cancer cells implanted in chick embryos (SN: 1/15/05, p. 37: Available to subscribers at Not to Your Health: New mechanism proposed for alcohol-related tumors).