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By Rebecca V. Snowden
Men
who drink alcohol heavily and on a regular basis may be putting
themselves at increased risk for prostate cancer, according
to a new
study published in Cancer, the American Cancer Society's
peer-reviewed medical journal. The study also found that heavy alcohol
use may diminish the possible preventive properties of finasteride,
a
drug that has been shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer in some
men.
The findings are based on data
from the Prostate
Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), a National Cancer
Institute study of the possible benefits of finasteride, a drug that
had been used primarily to treat men with enlarged prostates to help
them urinate freely (Proscar) and male pattern baldness (Propecia).
That study found finasteride reduced the prostate cancer rate by 25%.
Researchers are still watching
the men in the study. Follow-up research using PCPT data, such as this
study, is also underway.
In this study, University of
California researchers evaluated the alcohol consumption and drinking
patterns of 10,920 men who were enrolled in PCPT. The researchers were
looking for relationships among the amount, frequency, and type of
alcohol each man drank and his risk of developing prostate cancer.
Men who drank 50 grams or more
of alcohol per day were at an increased risk of developing high-grade
prostate cancer. High-grade prostate cancer is the most aggressive form
of the disease. (For more information on tumor grade and staging, see
this document.)
Fifty grams is roughly
equivalent to 4 beers (1 beer = 12.96 grams of alcohol) or 4 glasses of
wine (1 glass of wine = 12.35 grams of alcohol) or 3.5 drinks of liquor
(1 serving of liquor = 13.93 grams of alcohol).
Men who drank heavily on 5 or
more days per week were also at a significantly higher risk of
aggressive disease, the data showed. Heavy beer drinking seemed to be
associated with higher risk compared to heavy drinking of wine or
liquor, but that may be because more men drank beer than other types of
alcohol.
These results differ from those
of other studies looking at alcohol intake and prostate cancer risk.
The researchers say more studies are needed to confirm their findings.
Taking finasteride appeared to
lower the risk of low-grade cancers in some of the light drinkers, but
had little effect on the heavier drinkers, possibly because alcohol
cancels out finasteride’s preventive effects. The authors
suggest this may be because alcohol interferes with certain enzymes
needed for the body to process the drug. More research in this area is
needed.
If you are taking finasteride
to decrease your prostate cancer risk and drink alcohol regularly, talk
to your doctor about whether you should still be taking the drug. It
has some difficult side effects, such erectile dysfunction and loss of
interest in sex.
If you drink alcohol regularly,
consider cutting back. Although the link to prostate cancer isn't
entirely clear, drinking alcohol does raise the risk of several other
types of cancer -- pharynx (throat), larynx (voice box), esophagus,
liver, breast, and possibly, the colon and rectum. The American Cancer
Society recommends you limit yourself to no more than 1 drink per day
for women and 2 drinks per day for men.
What counts as a drink?
- 12 ounces of beer
- 5 ounces
of wine
- 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits
Talk to your doctor about other
lifestyle choices that can reduce your risk of cancer, including eating
a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight,
and getting regular cancer screenings.
Reviewed by:
Members of the ACS
Medical Content Staff
Citation: "Alcohol Consumption, Finasteride, and Prostate Cancer Risk."
Published online July 13, 2009 in Cancer.
First author: Zhihong Gong, PhD, Department of Epidemiology and
Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco.
ACS News Center stories are provided as a source of cancer-related
news and are not intended to be used as
press releases.
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