More than half of American adults misunderstand or underestimate the link between drinking alcohol and cancer, researchers have warned, with potentially dangerous consequences.
Almost 53 percent of nearly 7,000 adults did not know that alcohol affects people’s risk of getting cancer, a new study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found.
The survey also revealed that just over 37 percent of U.S. adults understand there is a correlation, and that there were even some – 1 percent – who believe drinking alcohol decreased cancer risk.
People who had recently consumed alcohol or who believed that cancer isn’t fatal or preventable were more likely to think that drinking alcohol doesn’t influence the risk of getting cancer, the researchers noted.
“It’s concerning that people who drink alcohol are the ones most likely to believe it has no effect on cancer risk,” Dr. Sanjay Shete, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at MD Anderson, said in a statement.
The researchers also identified certain groups that were less likely to know about how alcohol influences cancer risk. Those individuals include cigarette smokers, Black people, those who do not believe cancer is preventable and those with lower education levels.
More than half of the participants had consumed alcohol in the last month and nearly 10 percent had a personal cancer history.
Alcohol has been classified as a cancer-causing substance and is linked to several types of cancer, including mouth, throat, voice box, esophagus, colon, rectal, liver and breast cancer.
Drinking it can increase chronic inflammation, damage the DNA, heighten the production of the breast cancer-linked hormone estrogen and make it easier for the mouth to absorb cancer-causing chemicals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
People don’t need to drink much to raise their risk. Just three or more alcoholic drinks a day can increase the risk of stomach and pancreatic cancers, the agency notes.
Alcohol consumption contributes to approximately 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 cancer-related deaths each year.
The number of annual alcohol deaths due to cancer has doubled in recent years in the U.S., rising from 11,896 in 1990 to 23,207 by 2021. The shift has resulted in Biden-era Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy calling for updated warning labels on bottles of alcohol.
Further addressing misbeliefs could help to save lives, Shete noted.
“Given people’s beliefs play a critical role in whether they choose healthier behaviors, we need to work on correcting these misperceptions, which could be essential to reducing the growing burden of alcohol-related cancers,” he said.
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