A new study finds that alcohol use increases the risk of lobular and hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, but not necessarily invasive ductal carcinomas. Alcohol use is an established risk factor for breast cancer. Prior to this research, few studies have examined the relationship between using alcohol and breast cancer risk by subtype. Some studies have shown that alcohol use is more strongly related to the risk of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Not many studies have looked at the risk by histology, or whether a tumor is ductal – located in the milk ducts – or lobular – located in the milk-producing lobules.
The researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center conducted an observational study of a subset of patients from a Women’s Health Initiative study, which included 87,724 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 70 years of age. The researchers examined data from the 2,944 women in the Women’s Health Initiative study who developed invasive breast cancer. The researchers found that alcohol use is more often tied to the risk of lobular carcinoma than ductal carcinoma, and more strongly related to hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. The risks observed in the study did not change by the kind of alcohol women drank.
"We found that women who drank one or more drinks per day had about double the risk of lobular type breast cancer, but no increase in their risk of ductal type breast cancer. It is important to note that ductal cancer is much more common than lobular cancer accounting for about 70 percent of all breast cancers, whereas lobular cancer accounts for only about 10 to 15 percent of cases," said the lead researcher.
