Drinking Alcohol After Breast Cancer Treatment is Safe

One of the most common questions heard from breast cancer survivors: Is it safe to drink alcohol? A new study from Kaiser Permanente Northern California provides new information that may help cancer specialists (oncologists) to answer this question. The new study published in the journal Cancer, is the largest study that looked at short-term alcohol use after breast cancer. The study findings suggest that consuming alcohol is not associated with an increased risk of breast cancer recurrence or dying from the disease.

Alcohol Consumption and Breast Cancer Outcome: What to Know

We know that women who drink alcohol are at increased risk of developing breast cancer and that the risk increases as alcohol use increases (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Alcohol's Effects on Breast Cancer in Women

Go to source). For this reason, researchers thought that drinking alcohol after a breast cancer diagnosis could increase the risk of cancer recurrence. But the study found that, overall, drinking alcohol after a breast cancer diagnosis does not impact a patient’s prognosis.

Previous studies that looked at alcohol use and breast cancer have had conflicting results. Moreover, most were focused on alcohol use before a breast cancer diagnosis. As a result, there are currently no guidelines for breast cancer survivors on alcohol use.

Guidelines for reducing breast cancer risk recommend that women have no more than one alcoholic drink per day.

For their analysis, the research team used data from the Pathways Study, a prospective study of more than 4,500 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer from 2005 to 2013 at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. It is one of the largest U.S. studies to follow breast cancer survivors to track the relationship between lifestyle changes and outcomes (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Alcohol consumption and prognosis and survival in breast cancer survivors: The Pathways Study

Go to source).

After a breast cancer diagnosis, patients are often focused on making lifestyle changes that could help them live longer. Many breast cancer patients have questions about whether drinking alcoholic beverages could lead to breast cancer recurrence.

Hence, the study aimed to provide breast cancer survivors and their physicians with information that can help them make decisions that will improve both their quantity and quality of life.

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The new study included more than 3,600 women who had completed a questionnaire about their alcohol use when they entered the Pathways Study at the time of their diagnosis and again 6 months later.

Over the next 11 years, 524 women had a breast cancer recurrence and 834 women in the study died — 369 from breast cancer, 314 from cardiovascular disease, and 151 from other health problems.

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Therefore, researchers hope their findings will help clinicians provide accurate information to breast cancer survivors who want to know what lifestyle changes they can make to improve their outcomes.

References:

1. Alcohol's Effects on Breast Cancer in Women - (https://arcr.niaaa.nih.gov/volume/40/2/alcohols-effects-breast-cancer-women)
2. Alcohol consumption and prognosis and survival in breast cancer survivors: The Pathways Study - (https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.34972)

Source-Eurekalert