alcohol and bc risk

I would have told you same exact thing as RaiderDee, I am 4 1/2 years out (diagnosed at age 32).... when diagnosed I was confident it was because I was overweight and drank!!! so not true! sure I could raise your chances but I feel we are all pre disposed.... I still drink on the weekends and I dink beer and Tequila, I will not change my life because of this, I do however eat a lot better only because it keeps my weight in check!! live your life for you! Some people are so ignorant it just kills me!! damn!! lol, hugs to you my friend! 

So I have a question on this topic and would love to hear from anyone who knows the answer...

We hear about alcohol increasing breast cancer risk...does this risk apply to those of us who have had a BI-LAT MX and taking Tamoxifen?  Isn't our risk lower than someone who never had cancer since we have no more breast tissue and we are starving any lingering cancer cells of estrogen by taking Tamoxifen.  I'm confused about breast cancer risk VS recurrence risk.

I enjoy a glass or 2 of red wine once or twice a week when I'm out with friends or cooking up a storm in the kitchen with the music on and I don't want to worry about recurrence.

I recently attended a breast and ovarian cancer conference put on by Moffitt Cancer Center, an NCI designated cancer center at the University of So. Florida.  During one of the break-out panels this subject came up.  They indicated that alcohol consumption of more than 5 drinks (a beer, a glass of wine, or a cocktail) per week raised whatever your recurrence risk percentage was by 34%.  That would mean that if your recurrence risk is 10%, more than 5 drinks per week would make it 13%.  Their recommendation was to limit consumption to between 2-5 drinks per week, as those who did not drink at all had a slightly elevated risk as well.  This was the first time I had heard such a specific recommendation for those who have been diagnosed and treated.  The information on the news recently was aimed at those who had never been diagnosed.

Hi HDangel and other ladies!

We believe this is the news story your friend was referencing: best for you to be educated first hand on the issue, than from a third party! Check out what BCO has to say about this latest research....

Alcohol Link to Breast Cancer Reaffirmed
November 1, 2011
Results from a large study confirm the link between regularly drinking alcohol and an increase in breast cancer risk. Read more...

I think your friend should understand that this 51% increase is a Relative Risk.  In other words comparing the risk of someone who does a certain thing to someone who doesn't.  So if your   risk of breast cancer is 10% and you have a relative risk of 10% your risk goes to 11%  (10+ 10% 0f 10 which is 1)  The study does not mean that with higher intake, you have a 50% risk of breast cancer.  I think that special K  and Beacon explained it well. I'm sure that your friend meant well, but I would probably have had a snarky remark like " it IS really hard to understand statistics and breast cancer is so complex and individualized that that I think I will rely on my MO's opinion about this.but thank you for your concern and your friendship.".

Thanks for starting this thread.  I really enjoy having a few (well, admittedly, more than a few) drinks on the weekends.  I've decided to try to count my drinks and limit them to no more than 5-6 per week.   I was reading somewhere else that folic acid can help to negate the bad effects of drinking to some degree.  However, the research is confusing, b/c folic acid can also increase the growth of cancer cells if they are present...here's what Livestrong says:

Significance
Folate does show some promise in reducing the risk of breast cancer in women who drink alcohol, a known risk factor for developing the disease. In summarizing a 2005 Australian study published in the "British Journal of Medicine," the American Institute for Cancer Research reported women who drank an average of three drinks a day and consumed 200 micrograms of folate or less had double the risk for breast cancer than those women who did not drink alcohol. Conversely, when folate intake was increased to 400 micrograms, the participants had an equal risk of developing the disease as their nondrinking counterparts. In other words, a higher folate intake seems to mitigate the effects of excess alcohol consumption in terms of breast cancer risk.

Warning
Beth Szuck, a registered dietitian with Winnipeg Regional Health Authority's Breast Health Center, urges women to try to meet nutritional requirements through diet because, "in some cases, it's been reported that folic acid can actually accelerate the cancer problem." The American Institute for Cancer Research calls it the folate paradox. On the one hand, folate helps DNA replicate normally. But if there are cancer cells present in the body growing at a faster rate than healthy cells, they also need folate to multiply. Taking a supplement in this case could accelerate cancer cells. Therefore, if you're thinking about taking folic acid, you should first consult with your doctor. The research on the effectiveness of folic acid in cancer prevention is ongoing. The results have been mixed.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/268346-folic-acid-breast-cancer/#ixzz1cwLAxqXs

I don't drink and I got BC. It's all a bunch of nonsense if you ask me. Surely, an occasional drink is not harmful. It's just like everything else; moderation is the key.

I agree with Patriotic.   Most of the women I know personally that got BC did not drink.   I drank 1 glass per day prior to my diagnosis, though.

However, most of them did have long term use of birth control pills.   I would advise any young women who have not yet had BC to avoid BCP's if possible.   This is my personal opinion only, and not one of a medical professional..

I would like to add that I went to lunch with my oncologist a few weeks back and all of us ordered some wine.  I looked at him and asked if it was ok and he just laughed and said, "social drinking won't hurt you."  A different onc told me I could have up to 5 drinks per week.  I keep it less than that but I don't worry about it so much. 

Interesting discussion, ladies, so I'm just jumping in to bookmark the thread.

hdangelbaby, I'm sorry your friend was insensitive in her presentation. While I'm not a researcher, I work in academic research administration. I've been in this and similar roles for nearly 10 years. Because of this experience, I tend to take a single research study with a grain of salt. Correlation does not equal causation. Until a research study can unequivocally state why variable A causes outcome B, I merely take it under consideration. 

How many times have we been told that coffee is good bad good bad bad good for us?

Here's the thing that always gets me - every time this subject comes up, people tend to lean towards the fact that there are plenty of people who don't drink that got cancer and plenty of people who do drink that didn't get cancer.  They like this comparison because it shows that whether or not you drink has nothing to do with whether or not you got cancer.  I'm not going to argue that point, because I RARELY drank and I still got cancer.

 HOWEVER,  we are not in the group that can wonder if we will get cancer if we drink.  We already have cancer (or had it) which means our risk of getting cancer is MUCH higher than the general population.  So we need to be extra vigilant with our choices.

There are women who can smoke, drink, and eat sausage until they are 103 and they will never get cancer.  We are not those women.   

That being said, did we cause our cancer?  Nope.  Can we influence our prognosis through diet and lifestyle choices?  I firmly believe so.   

(I don't believe I am genetically predisposed to cancer - I am the only one with cancer in my family, including my identical twin sister.) 

A little refinement of the stats of risk:

From the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health - the risk broken down by decade for the average American woman is this:

Age 30-39 - 0.43
Age 40-49 - 1.45
Age 50-59 - 2.38
Age 60-69 - 3.45

You can't forget that the 1 in 8 statistic factors in all living to the age of 85 and not dying from anything else. 

sweetbean - I do agree with you that diet (what you put in your body) has a huge affect.  I'm athletic and eat very healthy most of the time.  I don't know if my Dr's are up on the latest case studies.  We probably learn more on these discussions than they do!

All - Here's where I'm still confused.  When we hear about these case studies that talk about breast cancer risk they are talking about women who are at risk for getting it the first time.  Do these studies apply to us since we are concerned about recurrence.  What's the difference between the first cancer and the second or third or new cancer vs old cancer that came back etc.  They are all created by cancer cell growth so isn't it all the same really?  Reducing the estrogen in your body is the goal if your hormone receptor + right?