A new study suggests there may be a link between the consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and fruit juices and the development of cancer.

The study is observation al and does not claim that drinking sugary drinks causes cancer. But after controlling for known variables, French researchers did find an association.

The study, in BMJ, involved 101,257 people, average age 42, who had filled out repeated 24-hour food-intake questionnaires. The form listed 97 sugary drinks and 12 artificially sweetened beverages.

Over nine years, there were 2,193 first cases of cancer, including 693 cases of breast cancer, 291 of prostate cancer and 166 of colorectal cancer.