A pint of beer a day increases bowel cancer risk by 10%

DRINKING a large glass of wine or a pint of beer a day increases the risk of developing bowel cancer by around 10%, said a report out yesterday.

Drinking about two pints a day or about two large glasses of wine increases the risk by 25%, a study found.

The lifetime risk for bowel cancer is one in 20 for men and one in 18 for women.

Almost 480,000 people across 10 European countries were questioned about their drinking habits as part of the ongoing European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study.

That research is funded by Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and other European agencies.

The findings on bowel cancer, published online in the International Journal of Cancer, found that people who drank 15 grammes of alcohol a day — equivalent to about two units — had around a 10% increased risk of bowel cancer.

Those who drank more than 30g of alcohol — equivalent to three to four units — increased their bowel cancer risk by around 25%.

In Britain, one unit equates to 8g of pure alcohol.

But the number of units a drink contains depends on how strong it is and how large the measure.

All the participants in the study were followed up for a period of six years. During that period, 1,833 people developed bowel cancer.

Professor Tim Key, Cancer Research UK epidemiologist and deputy director of the cancer epidemiology unit in Oxford, said: “The research shows quite clearly that the more alcohol you drink the greater your risk of bowel cancer. The increase in risk is not large but it is important that people understand they can reduce their risk of a number of different cancers — including bowel cancer — by cutting down on alcohol.”

Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK’s director of cancer information, said: “There is a lot of confusion over safe levels of drinking. This partly arises over the increasing strength of some wines and beers and the fact that many pubs offer a large glass of wine that is actually equivalent to one third of a bottle.”

“It is important that people do not automatically equate one drink with one unit. A large glass of wine with a high alcohol volume is likely to be the equivalent of considerably more than that.”