Just one small glass of wine a day raises a woman's risk of breast cancer



Drinking a small 125ml glass of wine a day raises the risk of breast cancer by five per cent. Posed by model

Just one small glass one wine a day substantially raises a woman's risk of breast cancer, researchers warn today.

They have calculated that light drinking is responsible for up to 500 cases of the disease in Britain a year.



The scientists are now urging women to consider avoiding alcohol altogether or at most ration themselves to only drinking occasionally.



In a major study involving 120,000 breast cancer sufferers they found that drinking just one small glass of wine a day raised the risk by 5 per cent.



This is well within the Government's daily alcohol guidelines, which state women should be safe to drink up to twice this amount.



Having two large 175ml glasses - four units of alcohol - increased the likelihood to 30 per cent, the researchers found.



And women who drank more than three large glasses a day - five and a half units - were 46 per cent more at risk of breast cancer.



The academics have calculated that 1 per cent breast cancers diagnosed in Britain every year are caused by light drinking which equates to 480 cases a year.

Professor Carlo La Vecchia of the University of Milan, Italy, one of the researchers said: 'The message for women is to limit alcohol.



'They should moderate it or avoid drinking altogether.



'We're not saying alcohol is as bad as cigarettes. It is a relevant public health issue.'



He added that to lessen the risk women should only drink 'occasionally'.

Warning: Scientists are now urging women to limit their wine intake or avoid drinking it altogether

For several decades scientists have suspected that large amounts of alcohol trigger breast cancer along with many other types of tumour.



But this is one of the first times academics have shown how even light drinking can substantially raise the risk.



The research, published in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism, which is printed by Oxford University, looked at more than 1,000 other studies linking alcohol to breast cancer.



They classified one drink as being 12.5g of alcohol which is the same as 1.5 units.



This is equivalent to a 125ml small glass of wine or a measure of spirits served in pubs.



At present the Government recommends that women should drink no more than two to three units a day and a maximum of 14 units a week.

The guidance can be confusing as many people assume there is only one unit per glass of wine when in fact a large serving contains nearer three.



Scientists believe that alcohol raises the levels of the sex-hormone oestrogen which is known to trigger tumours.



They think that breasts are far more sensitive to its cancer-causing effects than other organs.



Breast cancer is now the most common form of the illness in women and there are 48,000 new cases in Britain every year and 11,700 deaths.



Last year Cancer Research UK calculated that 1 in 8 women would develop the illness at some point in their lives.



Alongside alcohol there is also evidence it is caused by smoking, obesity and lack of exercise.



Sarah Williams, health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: 'Research has already shown that the risk of breast cancer increases the more alcohol a woman drinks.



'But this new study adds to the evidence that drinking even small amounts of alcohol - about one drink a day - can slightly increase the risk of breast cancer.

