Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Alcohol Drinking May Increase Risk of Breast Cancer in Men: A European Population-Based Case–Control Study

  • Published:
Cancer Causes & Control Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective: It has been estimated that alcohol drinking increases the risk of breast cancer in women by approximately 7% for each increment of 10 g alcohol per day. However, the few studies conducted on breast cancer among men have failed to detect an association with quantitative measures of alcohol drinking, even if the alcohol intake is generally higher in men than in women. On the other hand, increased risks of male breast cancer were inconsistently reported in alcoholics or patients with liver cirrhosis. We have investigated the role of alcohol drinking in male breast cancer using data collected in a population-based case–control study on seven rare cancers, conducted in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden.

Methods: The cases were 74 histologically verified male breast cancer patients aged 35–70 years. The controls (n = 1432) were selected from population registers, and frequency-matched to the cases by age group and geographic area. To check for consistency, a separate analysis was conducted using as controls the patients with a rare cancer other than male breast recruited simultaneously in the European study (n = 519 men).

Results: Based on population controls, the risk of developing breast cancer in men increased by 16%(95% CI: 7–26%) per 10 g alcohol /day (p < 0.001). An odds ratio of 5.89 (95% CI: 2.21-15.69) was observed for alcohol intake greater than 90 g per day, as compared with light consumers ( < 15 g per day). Similar associations were observed when other rare cancers patients were used as controls.

Conclusion: We found that the relative risk of breast cancer in men is comparable to that in women for alcohol intakes below 60 g per day. It continues to increase at high consumption levels not usually studied in women.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Collaborative group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer (2002) Alcohol, tobacco and breast cancer-collaborative reanalysis of individual data from 53 epidemiological studies, including 58 515 women with breast cancer and 95, 067 women without the disease.Br J Cancer 87: 1234–1245.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Mabuchi K, Bross DS, Kessler II (1985) Risk factors for male breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 74: 371–375.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Casagrande JT, Hanisch R, Pike MC et al. (1988) A case-control study of male breast cancer. Cancer Res 48: 1326–1330.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Hsing AW, McLaughlin JK, Cocco P et al. (1998)Risk factors for male breast cancer (United States). Cancer Causes Control 9: 269–275.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Rosenblatt KA, Thomas DB, Jimenez LM et al. (1999) The relationship between diet and breast cancer in men (United States).Cancer Cause Control 10: 107–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Johnson KC, Pan S, Mao Y (2002) Risk factors for male breast cancer in Canada}, 1994-1998. Eur J Cancer Prev 11: 253–263.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Petridou E, Giokas G, Kuper H et al. (2000) Endocrine correlates of male breast cancer risk: a case-control study in Athens, Greece.Br J Cancer 83: 1234–1237.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Sasco AJ, Lowenfels AB, Paskerdejong P. (1993) Review Article-Epidemiology of male breast cancer-A Meta-analysis of published case-control studies and discussion of selected aetiological Factors. Int J Cancer 53: 538–549.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Couch FJ, Farid LM, DeShano ML et al. (1996) BRCA2 germline mutations in male breast cancer cases and breast cancer families.Nat Genet 13: 123–125.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Dorgan JF, Baer DJ, Albert PS et al.(2001) (Serum hormones and the alcohol-breast cancer association in postmenopausal women).J Natl Cancer Inst 93: 710–715.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Weiderpass E, Ye W, Adami HO et al. (2001) Breast cancer risk in male alcoholics in Sweden. Cancer Cause Control 12: 661–664.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Keller AZ. (1967) Demographic, clinical and survivorship characteristics of males with primary cancer of the breast. Am J Epidemiol. 85: 183–199.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Olsson H, Ranstam J (1988) Head trauma and exposure to prolactin-elevating drugs as risk factors for male breast cancer.J Natl Cancer Inst 80: 679–683.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Lenfant-Pejovic MH, Mlika-Cabanne N, Bouchardy C et al. (1990) Risk factors for male breast cancer: a Franco-Swiss casecontrol study. Int J Cancer 45: 661–665.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Sorensen HT, Friis S, Olsen JH et al. (1998) Risk of breast cancer in men with liver cirrhosis. Am J Gastroenterol 93: 231–233.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. WHO (1999) Global Status Report On Alcohol Geneva, World Health Organization, pp. 1–376.

  17. Giovannucci E, Rimm EB, Ascherio A et al. (1995) Alcohol, lowmethionine-low-folate diets, and risk of colon cancer in men.J Natl Cancer Inst. 87: 265–273.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Tuyns AJ, Esteve J, Raymond L et al. (1988) Cancer of the larynx/ hypopharynx, tobacco and alcohol: IARC international casecontrol study in Turin and Varese (Italy), Zaragoza and Navarra (Spain), Geneva (Switzerland) and Calvados (France). Int J Cancer. 41: 483–491.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Wannamethee SG, Shaper AG (1997) Lifelong teetotallers, exdrinkers and drinkers: mortality and the incidence of major coronary heart disease events in middle-aged British men. Int J Epidemiol 26: 523–531.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. STATA. StataCorp (2001). Stata Statistical Software: Release 7.0. College Station, TX: Stata Corporation.

  21. Morabia A (2002) Smoking (active and passive) and breast cancer: epidemiologic evidence up to June 2001. Environ Mol Mutagen 39: 89–95.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Macera CA, Jackson KL, Davis DR et al. (1990) Patterns of nonresponse to a mail survey. J Clin Epidemiol. 43: 1427–1430.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. O'Neill TW, Marsden D, Silman AJ (1995) Differences in the characteristics of responders and non-responders in a prevalence survey of vertebral osteoporosis. European Vertebral Osteoporosis Study Group. Osteoporos Int 5: 327–334.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Hill A, Roberts J, Ewings P et al. (2000) Non-response bias in a lifestyle survey. J Public Health Med 19: 203–207.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Kaerlev L, Teglbjaerg PS, Sabroe S et al.(2000) Is there an association between alcohol intake or smoking and small bowel adenocarcinoma? Results from a European multi-center casecontrol study}. Cancer Causes Control 11: 791–797

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Thomas DB, Jimenez LM, Mctiernan A et al. (1992) Breast cancer in men-risk factors with hormonal implications. Am J Epidemiol 135: 734–748.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Ewertz M, Holmberg L, Tretli S et al. (2001) Risk factors for male breast cancer-a case-control study from Scandinavia. Acta Oncol 40: 467–471.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Becker U, Gronbaek M, Johansen D et al. (2002) Lower risk for alcohol-induced cirrhosis in wine drinkers. Hepatology 35: 868–875.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Kuper H, Ye W, Weiderpass E et al. (2000) Alcohol and breast cancer risk: the alcoholism paradox. Br J Cancer 83: 949–951.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. Pascal Guénel

    Present address: INSERM Unité 170, 16 avenue Paul-Vaillant Couturier, 94807, Villejuif Cedex, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM Unité, 88/IFR69, Saint-Maurice, France

    Pascal Guénel & Diane Cyr

  2. University of Aarhus, Denmark

    Svend Sabroe

  3. University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    Elsebeth Lynge

  4. Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, CERMS and Centre for Oncologic Prevention, University of Turin, Italy

    Franco Merletti

  5. Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine, University of Bremen, Germany

    Wolfgang Ahrens

  6. Hamburg Cancer Registry, Germany

    Cornelia Baumgardt-Elms

  7. Isère Cancer Registry, Grenoble and ‘Réseau FRANCIM’-, Toulouse, France

    François Ménégoz

  8. University of Lund, Sweden

    Håkan Olsson

  9. Institute of Pathology, Aalborg, Denmark

    Stein Paulsen

  10. Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, University of Padova, Italy

    Lorenzo Simonato

  11. Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Linköping University, Sweden

    Gun Wingren

Authors
  1. Pascal Guénel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Diane Cyr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Svend Sabroe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Elsebeth Lynge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Franco Merletti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Wolfgang Ahrens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Cornelia Baumgardt-Elms
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. François Ménégoz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Håkan Olsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Stein Paulsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Lorenzo Simonato
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Gun Wingren
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Guénel, P., Cyr, D., Sabroe, S. et al. Alcohol Drinking May Increase Risk of Breast Cancer in Men: A European Population-Based Case–Control Study. Cancer Causes Control 15, 571–580 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:CACO.0000036154.18162.43

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:CACO.0000036154.18162.43

Search

Navigation