In 1988, alcohol was added to the list of Group 1 carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, alongside tobacco, asbestos, radiation, and viral infections such as HIV and HPV. This classification, put simply, means that alcohol causes cancer. Yet public awareness of this remains remarkably low.
Drinking alcohol is known to cause at least seven types of cancer: mouth, upper throat, voice box, food pipe, breast, liver, and bowel cancer, and there is increasing evidence that it may be linked to pancreatic cancer.
Each year in the UK, alcohol causes as many cancer deaths as deaths from alcohol-related liver disease, but how does alcohol cause cancer, how many cases and deaths does it cause, what are the levels of risk, and what can be done to reduce this harm?
Our expert speaker is Professor Linda Bauld, who worked for seven years as Cancer Research UK’s cancer prevention adviser.