From ancient civilizations, through the famous Prohibition Law in the United States and reaching today's permissiveness, the consumption of alcohol is so popular that we even forget that its substance is a drug like any other, the difference is that it is legalized. Being a drug, its ingestion can cause serious consequences. To shed light on such ills ten scientists came together to investigate the consequences of drinking alcohol and discovered that 4% of all new cancer cases in 2020 were attributed to alcohol.‎‎ The study was published this month in the British scientific journal The Lancet Oncology.

Entitled from”Global burden of cancer in 2020 attributable to alcohol consumption: a population-based study” the research carried out highlights that alcohol consumption is associated with a wide range of diseases, including cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract (oral cavity, pharynx, larynx and esophagus), colon, rectum, liver and breast. These contributed to 6.3 million cases and 3.3 million deaths globally in 2020.

It is estimated that 741,300 (4%) of all cancer cases registered globally were caused by the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Of those, 568,700 were in men and 172,600 in women. This fact follows the trend that men traditionally drink more than women. The study also points out that most cases are due to excessive alcohol consumption (346,400 of the cases) and risky consumption (291 800 of the cases), while moderate alcohol consumption contributed to 103 100 of the records and drinking up to 10 g a day caused 41,300 cancers.

Even though it is related to cancers in various parts of the body, researchers highlight that the most common cases of cancer associated with alcohol are those that appear in tissues that come into direct contact with the substance. A publication of the magazine in 2017 I already drew attention to the fact that “a three-fold increase in the recommended alcohol limit increases the risk of esophageal cancer by eight times, leading to estimates that three-quarters of esophageal cancers are due to high alcohol consumption. Because esophageal cancer has a 5-year survival rate of less than 10%, prevention is paramount.”

If we take into account that the research was carried out in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which still causes emotional stress and deprives people of various social activities around the world, the situation becomes more alarming. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) conducted research in 2020 that proves the intensification of alcohol abuse by 93.9% during social isolation. Of this amount, 52.8% had anxiety, nervousness, insomnia, worry, fear, irritability, and difficulty relaxing. It is understood that the beverage was used to alleviate everyday stress. Thus, the scale of the danger posed by alcohol is worrying, since around 2 billion people already consume alcoholic beverages regularly in times of stability.

The whole scenario sounds alarming, after all, there are studies that state that there are benefits of using alcohol moderately, such as a glass of wine a day, for example. However, the British journal study casts doubt on these statements and comments that “historical statements about the benefit of alcohol are probably misinterpreted or exaggerated, because a lower threshold for cancer risk related to alcohol consumption has not yet been identified”.

There are also associations between alcohol and many other types of cancer, but researchers argue that the precise role of alcohol in these cases requires that new research be fully dissociated from ecological and lifestyle factors. This, therefore, our body is affected by our environment, such as pollution and the quality of the water we drink, and by how hard we work and sleep; what we eat; how normal it is to drink in our culture and even what alcoholic beverage is most consumed in the place where we live. The challenge is to separate what is the effect of alcohol alone and what is the effect of alcohol added to other factors.

Thus, we observed that science continues the movement that involves contradictions and a lot of collective work until it reaches points of communion. The study presented is another piece developed by science to assemble the puzzles that are cancer studies.

Even aware that alcoholic beverages are an intrinsic part of the culture of several nations and that the abolition of their consumption may not take place, the authors of the study”Global burden of cancer in 2020 attributable to alcohol consumption: a population-based study” believe that due to the risk of cancer and other diseases, reeducation actions are needed to preach a safer and more moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages, in addition to stricter regulation for their consumption, even if this causes strong political and commercial opposition.

Authors: Harriet Rumgay, BSc; Kevin Shield, PhD; Hadrien Charvat, PhD; Pietro Ferrari, PhD; Bundit Sornpaisarn, PhD; Prof. Isidore Obot, PhD; Farhad Islami, PhD; Prof Valery E P Lemmens, PhD; Prof. Jürgen Rehm PhD; and Isabelle Soerjomataram, PhD.

Text by Letícia Barbosa