Drinking Alcohol During Teenage Years Increases Breast Cancer Risk

Alcohol consumption during teenage years can make women prone to breast cancer in later life, a latest study reveals.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that daily consumption of alcohol-- whether beer, wine or hard liquor -- raises the risk of proliferative benign breast cancer by 15 percent. The lesions by themselves are not risky but the chances of breast cancer can jump around 500 percent.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health ( 2011), nearly 25 percent of youngsters between the ages of 12 and 20 years reportedly drink alcohol and about 16 percent said that they binge drink.

"More and more heavy drinking is occurring on college campuses and during adolescence, and not enough people are considering future risk. But, according to our research, the lesson is clear: If a female averages a drink per day between her first period and her first full-term pregnancy, she increases her risk of breast cancer by 13 percent," said Graham Colditz, MD,  from Washington University School of Medicine and co-author of the study.

"Parents should educate their daughters about the link between drinking and risk of breast cancer and breast disease," she said. "That's very important because this time period is very critical." Ying Liu, MD, a School of Medicine instructor in the Division of Public Health Sciences and one of the authors said in a news release.

For the study, the researchers studied data of 91,000 women registered in the Nurses' Health Study II from 1989 to 2009. The researchers advised young girls to avoid drinking to lower risk of breast cancer in future.