3. Cancers attributable to consumption of alcohol in the UK in 2010

In 1988, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monograph on the carcinogenic risk to humans of alcohol drinking concluded that the occurrence of malignant tumours of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus and liver was causally related to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. In an updated review (Baan et al, 2007; Secretan et al, 2009), they noted the consistent finding of an increased risk of breast cancer with increasing alcohol intake, and that an association between alcohol consumption and colorectal cancer had been reported by more than 50 prospective and case–control studies, with no difference in the risk for colon and rectal cancers (Baan et al, 2007). The World Cancer Research Fund report (WCRF, 2007) considered that the evidence for an association of alcohol intake with these sites was convincing and, for liver cancer, probable.