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Following the surgeon general’s January advisory linking alcohol consumption to seven types of cancer, a new study from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has revealed another possible risk.
The research, which was recently published in the journal PLOS Medicine, classified alcohol as a carcinogen, highlighting a particular increased risk of pancreatic cancer.
The surgeon general’s previous advisory named cancers of the breast (in women), colorectum, esophagus, voice box, liver, mouth and throat.
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The researchers associated the pancreatic cancer risk with beer and spirits/liquor, but not with the intake of wine.
“Alcohol consumption is a known carcinogen, but until now, the evidence linking it specifically to pancreatic cancer has been considered inconclusive,” said senior study author Dr. Pietro Ferrari, head of the IARC Nutrition and Metabolism Branch, in a press release.
“Our findings provide new evidence that pancreatic cancer may be another cancer type associated with alcohol consumption, a connection that has been underestimated until now.”
For the study, researchers recruited 2.5 million participants with a median age of 57, following them for about 16 years.
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Out of the group, 10,067 cases of pancreatic cancer were recorded.
Each increase of 10 grams of ethanol per day in alcohol consumption was associated with a 3% increase in the risk of pancreatic cancer, the study found.
Women who consumed 15 to 30 grams of alcohol (about one to two standard drinks) per day had a 12% increase in pancreatic cancer risk.
Men who consumed 30 to 60 grams (two to six standard drinks) per day had a 15% increased risk of pancreatic cancer, and intake of over 60 grams per day was associated with a 36% greater risk.
“There really isn’t a safe level of drinking when it comes to cancer risk.”
The research did have some limitations.
“This observational study examined alcohol intake evaluated at a single time point during mid-to-late adulthood and included a limited number of Asian cohorts,” the researchers wrote.
“Further research is needed to better understand the role of lifetime alcohol consumption — for example, during early adulthood — and the influence of specific consumption patterns, such as binge-drinking.”
Dr. Adam Scioli, an addiction psychiatrist at Caron Treatment Centers in Pennsylvania, previously commented to Fox News Digital that “alcohol is a toxin.”
“There have been reports for years that it could be beneficial for one’s health — but we know now that alcohol ingestion is one of the modifiable risk factors for cancer,” Scioli, who is not affiliated with IARC, told Fox News Digital.
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Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News, was not involved in the study, but spoke with Fox News Digital about the findings.
“This is in keeping with alcohol as a toxin that directly inflames and damages pancreatic cells,” he confirmed.
Around 75,000 Americans each year are diagnosed with a cancer that is in some way linked to alcohol use, according to Scioli.
Dr. Neha Pathak, WebMD’s chief physician editor of health and lifestyle medicine, noted that the study highlights a new, independent risk factor for pancreatic cancer.
“What’s important to know is that there really isn’t a safe level of drinking when it comes to cancer risk,” Atlanta-based Pathak, who also did not participate in the research, told Fox News Digital.
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“This study reinforces that message — but it also shows how complex these links are, and how we need to keep digging deeper into the role of alcohol and different drinking habits in cancer development,” she added.
Melissa Rudy contributed to this report.
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