An advertisement revealing how alcohol absorbs into bloodstreams and can cause cancer is the most effective alcohol education ad internationally, a Cancer Council Victoria suggests. 
 
 ‘Spread’, created by The Brand Agency in 2010 for the Western Australia Alcohol and Drug Office, shows how drinking too much alcohol could heighten risks of cell mutations and cause cancer. 
 
 Published in the British Medical Journal Open, the study compared 83 alcohol education advertisements around the world, with ‘Spread’ reported as the most likely to motivate drinkers to reduce alcohol consumption. 
 
 The study involved 2,174 adults who regularly consume alcohol. The study subjects were shown three randomly selected ads from the pool of options before reporting the extent to which they felt motivated to reduce drinking following the viewing. 
 
 Each advertisement was scored on a five-point scale, with one being lowest and five being highest motivation. 
 
 ‘Spread’ received a score of 3.77, performing best among male and females, all ages, as well as low and high-risk drinkers. 
 
 Todd Harper, Cancer Council Victoria’s CEO said the research shows how campaigns can be used to help inform the public of the long-term consequences of alcohol consumption. 
 
 “We’ve seen how effective campaigns around drink driving and short-term harms such as injury or violence have been in terms of changing our drinking habits, but in Victoria and the majority of the rest of Australia, we rarely see the long-term health effects of alcohol portrayed on our screens,” he said. 
 
 “This research highlights how effective a campaign like this could be in terms of motivating people to better understand the risks of alcohol consumption. 
 
 “These findings should now be used to plan campaigns that empower the community with knowledge about the harms of alcohol, so they can reduce their cancer risk.” 
 
 The study was conducted by the Cancer Council’s Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer and funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council. 
 
 Cancer Council Victoria hopes to use the advertisement in a campaign later this year. 
 
 Nine’s Today Show Extra this morning built on Harper’s comments, discussing whether alcohol packaging could or should go in the same direction as cigarette advertising, following the study’s revelations. ||||| Analysis implicates alcohol in development of breast, liver and other types of cancer and says even moderate consumption is a risk 
 
 Alcohol causes seven forms of cancer, and people consuming even low to moderate amounts are at risk, according to new analysis. 
 
 
 
 Health experts endorsed the findings and said they showed that ministers should initiate more education campaigns in order to tackle widespread public ignorance about how closely alcohol and cancer are connected. The study sparked renewed calls for regular drinkers to be encouraged to take alcohol-free days, and for alcohol packaging to carry warning labels. 
 
 Fresh analysis of evidence accumulated over recent years implicates alcohol in the development of breast, colon, liver and other types of cancer. 
 
 The study, published in the scientific journal Addiction, concludes that there is more than simply a link or statistical association between alcohol and cancer that could be explained by something else. There is now enough credible evidence to say conclusively that drinking is a direct cause of the disease, according to Jennie Connor, of the preventive and social medicine department at Otago University in New Zealand. 
 
 “There is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites in the body and probably others,” Connor said. “Even without complete knowledge of biological mechanisms [of how alcohol causes cancer], the epidemiological evidence can support the judgment that alcohol causes cancer of the oropharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colon, rectum and breast.” 
 
 Alcohol-related deaths in England up 4% in one year Read more 
 
 Growing evidence suggested that alcohol was also likely to cause skin, prostate and pancreatic cancer, she added. Emphasising that a drinker’s risk increased in relation to the amount consumed, Connor said: “For all these there is a dose-response relationship.” 
 
 Connor arrived at her conclusions after studying reviews undertaken over the past 10 years by the World Cancer Research Fund, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the World Health Organisation’s cancer body, and other authoritative bodies. 
 
 “The highest risks are associated with the heaviest drinking but a considerable burden is experienced by drinkers with low to moderate consumption, due to the distribution of drinking in the population,” Connor said. Campaigns to reduce alcohol consumption should therefore try to encourage everyone to cut down, as targeting only heavy drinkers had “limited potential” to reduce alcohol-related cancer, she added. 
 
 In February Prof Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, caused a stir by warning women that drinking alcohol could cause breast cancer. She told a parliamentary hearing: “Do as I do when I reach for my glass of wine. Think: do I want the glass of wine or do I want to raise my own risk of breast cancer? I take a decision each time I have a glass.” 
 
 Davies played a key role in drawing up new government guidelines on safe drinking limits, published in January, which recommended that men reduce their maximum weekly intake of alcohol from 21 to 14 units, or seven pints of beer a week, which is the longstanding threshold that women are advised not to exceed. 
 
 The growing evidence of alcohol’s role in causing cancer, underlined by a report by the UK Committee on Carcinogenicity, was a key reason behind Davies and her counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland issuing advice that some said was impractical and would be ignored. Sticking to the new guidelines would help keep drinkers’ risk of cancer low, the proponents said. 
 
 Dr Jana Witt, Cancer Research UK’s health information officer, said: “We know that nine in 10 people aren’t aware of the link between alcohol and cancer. And this review is a stark reminder that there’s strong evidence linking the two.” 
 
 A recent CRUK study found that when people were shown a list of different cancers, only one in five of them knew that breast cancer could be caused by drinking, compared to four out of five people who knew that alcohol could cause liver cancer. 
 
 “Having some alcohol-free days each week is a good way to cut down on the amount you’re drinking,” Witt said. “Also, try swapping every other alcoholic drink for a soft drink, choosing smaller servings or less alcoholic versions of drinks, and not keeping a stock of booze at home.” 
 
 Alan Boobis, professor of biochemical pharmacology at Imperial College London, said the science showing alcohol’s role in cancer was well established. “The main difficulty is communicating effectively with the public,” he said. 
 
 Connor’s study also found that people who smoke and drink are at even greater risk of developing cancer. 
 
 More positively, there was some evidence that drinkers who gave up alcohol could reverse their risk of laryngeal, pharyngeal and liver cancer, and that their risk reduced the longer they avoided alcohol, Connor’s research found. 
 
 Elaine Hindal, chief executive of Drinkaware, the alcohol industry-funded education charity, agreed that drinking and cancer risk were closely linked. 
 
 “Regularly drinking more than the government’s low-risk guidelines puts you at increased risk of some types of cancer, and can also increase your risk of heart and liver disease, strokes and pancreatitis,” she said. “Smoking and drinking together increases your risk of developing throat and mouth cancer more than doing either on their own.” 
 
 People drinking more than the recommended limits should cut down in order to safeguard their future health, she added. ||||| (Washington Post Staff Photo/Andrea Bruce) 
 
 Just one glass of wine or other alcoholic drink a day significantly raises the risk of breast cancer, while vigorous exercise such as running and bicycling reduces it, according to an expansive review of research on the effects of diet, nutrition and physical activity on the disease. 
 
 The report, which was issued Tuesday, concluded that drinking the equivalent of one small glass of wine, beer or other alcohol a day — about 10 grams of alcohol — is linked to an increased cancer risk of 5 percent for pre-menopausal women and 9 percent for post-menopausal women. A standard drink has 14 grams of alcohol. 
 
 "This suggests there is no level of alcohol use that is completely safe in terms of breast cancer," said Anne McTiernan, a cancer-prevention researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and one of the report's lead authors. "If a woman is drinking, it would be better if she kept it to a lower amount." 
 
 The review, by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund, evaluated research in 119 studies encompassing data on 12 million women from around the world. It is the first such review since 2010, the groups said. 
 
 For the first time, researchers concluded evidence is strong that vigorous exercise reduces breast-cancer risk. Pre-menopausal women who were the most active had a 17 percent lower risk of developing malignancies compared to the least active women, while post-menopausal women had a 10 percent decreased risk. 
 
 [For women, heavy drinking has been normalized. That's dangerous.] 
 
 The researchers noted that many things influence cancer risk and that women can't control factors such as a family history of cancer. But, McTiernan said, "having a physically active lifestyle, maintaining a healthy weight throughout life and limiting alcohol — these are all steps women can take to lower their risk." 
 
 At the same time, she said, a healthy lifestyle is not a guarantee. Rather, it's more like wearing a seat belt. Many women will do everything they can to reduce their risks of breast cancer but still get diagnosed. "That's unfortunate, but that's what happens," she said. 
 
 Researchers were not able to calculate the degree to which vigorous exercise might cut the risk of alcohol consumption. What happens, for example, if a regular drinker also runs daily? 
 
 "The mechanism suggests that it could be helpful," McTiernan said. Alcohol increases estrogen, which is linked to increased breast-cancer risk, while physical activity reduces it. "But I can't say that for someone who drinks five drinks and then runs, that the exercise is going to negate the adverse effects of the alcohol." 
 
 The report found women who are overweight or obese have a higher risk of post-menopausal disease. 
 
 "If women lose just 10 percent of their weight, it's linked to reduced blood estrogen, inflammation" and other factors associated with breast cancer, McTiernan said. 
 
 The report also found limited evidence linking dairy foods, diets high in calcium and foods containing carotenoids to a lower risk of some breast cancers. Carotenoids include such fruits and vegetables as kale, apricots and carrots. 
 
 About 252,000 women in the United States are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. AICR estimates that 1 in 3 cases could be prevented if women did not drink alcohol, were physically active and maintained a healthy weight. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 Women with advanced breast cancer are surviving longer, study says 
 
 You just learned you have breast cancer. Now what? 
 
 Waiting and watching with 'Stage 0' breast cancer put to nationwide test ||||| Alcohol has been linked to several different cancers, some more strongly than others. Now a study adds a new type of cancer to the list, and it's an unexpected one: Brown University researchers say that drinking, even in moderate amounts, is associated with higher rates of melanoma -- the deadliest form of skin cancer. 
 
 Their research revealed more interesting facts, as well. In the study, white wine had a bigger impact on melanoma risk than red wine, beer, or liquor. And compared with teetotalers, alcohol drinkers' increased risk was greatest for body parts that normally aren't exposed to the sun. 
 
 Some scientists have speculated that alcohol may make us more susceptible to sunburns, says co-author Eunyoung Cho, ScD, an associate professor of dermatology and epidemiology at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. But the new findings indicate there may be something else going on beneath the surface, she says. 
 
 About 3.6% of cancer cases worldwide are thought to be caused by alcohol, the authors note. "For some, like cancers of the digestive tract, the alcohol actually comes in contact with the tissue, so it's easier to understand," says Cho. "For others, like breast cancer, we don't really have a great explanation at this point why alcohol would be related." 
 
 One theory, she says, is that a compound in alcohol called acetaldehyde can damage DNA, and prevent DNA repair, throughout the body. "It's a well known carcinogen, so that could be a very general mechanism as to how alcohol relates to cancer at other sites," she says. 
 
 There's been little research on alcohol and skin cancer risk, however, and the studies that have been conducted have been inconclusive. They haven't included much information about participants' sun exposure, says Cho, which could affect the results. 
 
 So Cho and her colleagues collected data from three large studies involving 210,252 participants, all of whom provided information about their drinking habits, place of residence, and health history -- including details about sunburns and tanning. Over an 18-year follow-up period, 1,374 people (less than 1% of all participants) were diagnosed with invasive melanoma. 
 
 The results, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, showed that each drink per day was associated with a 14% higher risk of melanoma . (A standard drink was defined as 12.8 grams of pure alcohol, or about the amount found in one beer, glass of wine, or shot of hard liquor.) 
 
 And when the researchers looked at each beverage type individually, they found that one drink stood out: Each glass of white wine per day was associated with a 13% increased risk of melanoma, while other forms of alcohol did not affect risk in a statistically meaningful way. 
 
 Some research has shown that wine has higher levels of acetaldehyde than beer or spirits, says Cho, while red wine's greater antioxidant content may offset the risks of these compounds. 
 
 But she won't let other beverages off the hook just yet. "Other alcoholic beverages did show some positive correlation, but did not reach statistical significance," she says. "For now, I would say that alcohol in general is related, and I would emphasize that white wine is particularly related." 
 
 Another surprise came when the researchers looked at melanoma rates on different body parts. People who drank 20 grams or more of alcohol per day (a little less than two drinks) were only 2% more likely than non-drinkers to be diagnosed with melanomas of the head, neck, arms, or legs. But they were 73% more likely to be diagnosed with melanomas of the trunk -- a body part often covered by clothing. 
 
 More research is needed to explain why this may be the case, says Cho. "There is a hypothesis that melanomas on different body sites may have different risk factors," she says. "Based on these findings, I might guess that this type of cancer is less related to sun exposure and more related to a biological mechanism of alcohol damaging DNA or preventing DNA repair." 
 
 The study only included white people, so the results cannot be generalized to other races or ethnic groups. And because it was observational, it was not able to determine a cause-and-effect relationship between alcohol (and white wine specifically) and melanoma rates. 
 
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 But the study did control for several factors, including the number of severe sunburns participants had ever had, their number of moles, and the average amount of ultraviolet radiation where they lived. These adjustments help strengthen the theory that alcohol really does play a role in melanoma development, Cho says -- and not simply that people who drink regularly, or who prefer white wine, are more likely to spend hours by the pool or on the beach. (One thing they weren't able to take into account, however, was sun-protection behaviors, such as using sunscreen.) 
 
 "There are many risk factors for melanoma that you cannot change, like family history, hair color, and susceptibility to sunburn," Cho says. "But drinking alcohol is something you can change, so it's actually good to know that alcohol is related to melanoma as well as other cancers."
– If you want to get people to stop boozing it up, don't show them images of glasses of healthy, sparkling water instead of beer—show them an ad that illustrates how too many cocktails can cause cancer to course through their bodies, the Guardian reports. That's the finding of a new study published in the BMJ Open journal that examined English-language alcohol ads to identify which ones proved best at inspiring drinkers to cut down. Researchers tapped a pool of 2,174 Australian adults ages 18 to 64 who drink alcohol at least one or two days a week. A total of 83 ads were shown, and the subjects were instructed to note after viewing each one how motivated they were to reduce their drinking on a scale from one to five, with "one" counting as an unmotivated "Nah, I'm good," and "five" as "Take the key to my liquor cabinet and bury it, please." The most effective ad: "Spread," a 30-second video created by the Western Australian government a few years ago that shows the cancerous mutations wrought after alcohol gets into one's bloodstream. The dud: that ad pushing water over beer. Cancer Council Victoria CEO Todd Harper tells the Guardian that "Spread" may have made an impact because folks simply don't know alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen, the most dangerous category. Even though Fergus Taylor, the director of Alcohol Beverages Australia, calls the "Spread" ad "scaremongering," Harper notes "every drink" ups one's chance of getting cancer, including that of the mouth, liver, and bowel. What these findings should do is spur campaigns that maximize the public's awareness of alcohol so they can cut their cancer risk, Harper says, per Mumbrella. (A study says alcohol can be directly tied to seven cancers.)