A new analysis of three decades of global disease burden data has documented a significant increase in cancer deaths associated with alcohol consumption in the United States. Researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center analyzed information spanning from 1990 through 2023, revealing that annual deaths from alcohol-related cancers rose from 11,361 to 23,126 during that period.
The study, published in August in the Lancet Regional Health, identified associations between alcohol intake and fatalities from multiple cancer types. These include breast, prostate, colon, rectal, stomach, pancreatic and liver cancers, as well as cancers affecting the head and neck regions. The research found that mortality increases occurred across most cancer categories, age groups and geographic regions, though older men experienced the most pronounced effects.
Previous research has indicated that relatively modest alcohol consumption can elevate cancer risk. Risk elevation has been documented at intake levels of 5 to 15 grams per day, a threshold that falls below the standard drink definition used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among men aged 55 and older specifically, the alcohol-related cancer mortality rate increased by nearly 24% across the 33-year study period. For this demographic, liver cancer showed the strongest connection to alcohol consumption, followed by esophageal and colorectal cancers. Among women in the same age group, breast cancer represented the leading alcohol-associated cancer death, with liver and colorectal cancers following.
Alcohol has maintained a classification as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, placing it alongside tobacco smoke and asbestos. The National Cancer Institute has documented that alcohol consumption accounted for approximately 5% of cancer cases diagnosed in the US in 2019 and roughly 4% of cancer deaths that year. A former surgeon general previously identified alcohol use as the third-leading preventable cause of cancer in the nation and advocated for warning labels on alcoholic beverages regarding cancer risks.
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