The number of deaths from alcohol-related cancers in the United States has doubled over the past three decades, reaching 23,126 cases in 2023, according to infohub.kz.
Alcohol is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen, yet public awareness of this risk remains low. New scientific evidence shows that alcohol consumption triggers a range of dangerous tumors that are increasingly affecting younger people and claiming thousands of lives.
The findings, from a study by researchers at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, were presented at the annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas.
The researchers found that alcohol-related cancer deaths are not limited to the elderly but also affect working-age individuals. Among younger people, the leading causes were colorectal cancer in men and breast cancer in women.
Using data from the Global Burden of Disease study spanning more than three decades, the researchers found that the annual number of alcohol-related cancer deaths rose from 11,361 in 1990 to 23,126 in 2023.
“The most surprising finding was the potential impact of alcohol on various types of cancer,” said Dr. Chinmay Jani, the study's lead author.
Specifically, among older men, the highest alcohol-related cancer mortality was from liver cancer, followed by esophageal and colorectal cancers. Among women, breast cancer was the leading cause of alcohol-related cancer death.
The study also revealed alarming trends among young adults. In men aged 20–54, colorectal cancer was the leading cause of alcohol-related cancer death. Among women in the same age group, breast cancer was the top cause, followed by colorectal cancer.
“This study clearly shows that the risk of developing cancer from alcohol is not limited to one disease or one group of people,” the study states.
Earlier, Kursiv reported that cancer mortality in Kazakhstan had decreased by a quarter.