How Does Alcohol Cause Cancer? (E58)
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Gill discusses cancer. She explains what a carcinogen is, how it causes cancer, and what component of alcohol causes cancer. There’s some misinformation circulating in the sober community on that topic, so she clears that up. You’ll learn how alcohol causes cancer, how our genetics contribute to our risk of developing cancer from heavy drinking, and how the way the body handles chronic heavy drinking puts us even more at risk for developing cancer.
Key Takeaways
The IARC identified alcohol consumption and the acetaldehyde that is produced in the breakdown of alcohol as carcinogenic to the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, colorectal, liver, and female breast. As of June 2010 the American Institute does not identify a generally safe threshold of alcohol, and a 2021 study found that there is no safe level of alcohol for brain health. The cancer causing agent in alcohol is the actual ethanol and the acetaldehyde that it is broken down into by the liver.
For chronic heavy drinkers, other pathways to eliminating alcohol become active because we are drinking so much and so frequently. These pathways are not turned on in social drinkers. An enzyme called cytochrome P540 E21 turns on and breaks down alcohol, but in the process it creates free radicals. Free radicals damage DNA and cause cancer. The amount of alcohol that triggers CYP2E1 to turn on is different for everyone and is likely determined by genetics. A 2002 study suggested that 3 drinks per day for 1 week is enough to turn on CYP2E1.
Acetaldehyde causes cancer in a few different ways. It has been shown to cause mutations in DNA or in portions of chromosomes, and it messes with a cell's ability to repair DNA damage by inhibiting one of the enzymes that makes the repair, so it can cause a mutation and then prevent the cell from fixing the mutation. This means the mutation would continue to get copied into new cells and more and more cells would have this mutation.
Sources
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Salaspuro M, Salaspuro V, Seitz HK. Alcohol and upper aerodigestive tract cancer. In: Cho CH, Purohit V, editors. Alcohol, Tobacco and Cancer. Basel, Switzerland: Karger; 2006. pp. 48–62.
Seitz HK, Stickel F, Homann N. Pathogenetic mechanisms of upper aerodigestive tract cancer in alcoholics. International Journal of Cancer. 2004;108:483–487.
Theravathu JA, Jaruga P, Nath RG, et al. Polyamines stimulate the formation of mutagenic 1,N2-propanodeoxyguanosinase adducts from acetaldehyde. Nucleic Acids Research. 2005;33:3513–3520.
Visapää JP, Götte K, Benesova M, et al. Increased cancer risk in heavy drinkers with the alcohol dehydrogenase 1C*1 allele, possibly due to salivary acetaldehyde. Gut. 2004;53:871–876.
Cite this episode
Tietz, G. Episode 58: How Does Alcohol Cause Cancer? Sober Powered. 2021.
