Quitting alcohol after breast cancer: no extra years found
- Claim
- QUIT ALCOHOL AFTER CANCER?
- Catch
- OBSERVATIONAL DATA
- Verdict
- THE RISK IS IN GETTING IT
Does cutting out alcohol after a breast cancer diagnosis extend survival? Researchers followed 1,558 postmenopausal women (mean age 71) with non-metastatic invasive breast cancer from the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study-II Nutrition Cohort for a median of 12.6 years, comparing women who quit or reduced drinking with those whose intake stayed stable. The result: neither quitting nor reducing alcohol after diagnosis was associated with lower all-cause mortality. One signal did emerge — among women who drank at least one serving a day before diagnosis, those who increased their consumption had about 1.8 times the mortality risk. The authors caution the findings may reflect uncontrolled confounding, the low prevalence of heavy drinking, or changes not sustained long enough. Alcohol remains a well-established risk factor for developing breast cancer in the first place.
SOURCES
- Rees S, Bodelon C, Chakraborty S, et al. "Change in alcohol consumption and all-cause mortality among postmenopausal women diagnosed with breast cancer." Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. 2026;220(1):14. DOI: 10.1007/s10549-026-08113-1
For information only, not medical advice. If you are a breast cancer survivor, talk to your doctor about alcohol and your overall care.
