Alcohol cuts kidney cancer risk
2007-08-25 13:33
New York - Drinking wine or
full-strength beer may lower the risk of developing kidney
cancer, according to a report in the British Journal of
Cancer.
Dr Alicja Wolk from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm,
and colleagues investigated the association of different types
of alcoholic beverages and of total alcohol consumption with
the risk of kidney cancer in a large population-based study in
Sweden.
The study involved 855 subjects with kidney cancer and 1204
"controls" without cancer.
They reported their alcohol consumption in terms of
standard portion sizes - a glass of beer being 200
milliliters, a glass of wine being 100 mL, and a glass of
strong wine or hard liquor equal to 40 mL.
The investigators rated the alcohol content of different
beverages: medium-strong beer had 2.8 grams alcohol per 100 g,
red wine had 9.9 g per 100 g, and hard liquor 32 g alcohol per
100 g.
Risk 40% lower
The team found that the odds of developing kidney cell
cancer was about 40-percent lower among those who consumed 620
g ethanol per month compared to those who did not drink at all.
Drinking more than two glasses of red wine per week was
associated with a 40-percent reduction in kidney cell cancer
risk compared with drinking no red wine, the investigators
observed, and there were similar trends for more than two
glasses per week of white wine or strong beer.
In contrast, there was no relation between kidney cell
cancer risk and consumption of light beer, medium-strong beer,
strong wine, or hard liquor.
"A reduced risk associated with consumption of wine and
beer might be due to the phenolics they contain as these
possess antioxidant and antimutagenic properties," the authors
speculate.
"However, the lower risk that we observed for three
different alcoholic beverages and total ethanol intake suggests
that alcohol itself rather than a particular type of drink is
responsible for the reduction in risk.