Drinking Raises Risk for Breast Conditions

Young women with a family history of breast cancer are at higher risk of developing other types of breast conditions if they also drink alcohol, a new study says.

And some of those breast conditions may further increase the risk for breast cancer.

"The most common question we hear from women with a family history of breast disease is: 'How can we prevent breast cancer in our daughters?'" says senior study author Graham Coldtiz, M.D., at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. "This points to a strategy to lower risk - or avoid increasing risk - by limiting alcohol intake."

Benign breast disease

After looking at data on more than 9,000 tween and teen girls collected between 1996 and 2007, Dr. Coldtiz and other researchers focused on 67 of them who were later diagnosed with benign breast disease between ages 18 and 27. Benign breast disease includes noncancerous breast lumps and breast pain, but it can also be a risk factor for breast cancer.

The researchers found that women with a family history of breast cancer or breast disease were about twice as likely to develop both benign breast disease and breast cancer than women with no family history of the disease.

And the risk for benign breast disease rose along with how much alcohol the young women consumed.

In young women with no family history of breast disease, alcohol consumption wasn't associated with an increased chance of benign breast disease.

Therefore, the researchers say, young women who are at high risk for breast cancer can reduce their risk for benign breast disease by avoiding alcohol.

Need for more research

But Anees Chagpar, M.D., at Yale School of Medicine, says more research is needed to confirm the study findings, which were published in a recent issue of the journal Cancer.

"Benign breast disease is a spectrum of changes - from simple cysts and fibrocystic change, which do not significantly increase one's risk of developing breast cancer, all the way to atypical ductal hyperplasia and lobular carcinoma in situ, which - while not premalignant nor frankly cancerous - impose a significant increased risk," Dr. Chagpar says.

"Many women have fibrocystic change which we've come to realize is really quite ubiquitous and part of the spectrum of 'normal,'" she adds. "Patients with such simple cysts should be reassured, and while vigilance in terms of screening is always advisable, they also need to know that this does not increase their risk of cancer."

Always talk with your health care provider to find out more information.