Diagnosed with a malignant breast tumor at age 47 (about a decade and a half younger than the median age for cancer diagnoses in the United States), a patient started asking, "Why me, and why at this age?" She happened to be also be a journalist for the magazine Mother Jones. And she noticed that she had no known risk factors, aside from one: alcohol consumption. 

Stephanie Mencimer began to investigate research on the carcinogenicity of alcohol, and ultimately wrote a long-form article for Mother Jones that included an interview with Noelle LoConte, MD, associate professor, Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care. Mencimer's reading and interviews made her aware of information that she found surprising, as not once had any doctor ever suggested that she might face a higher cancer risk if she didn’t cut back on drinking.

The article details how alcohol is marketed to women, and – drawing parallels to the tobacco industry in the 1950s and 60s – describes efforts by the beverage industry to rebrand drinking as part of a healthy lifestyle. 

Dr. LoConte described why low public awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer risk led the American Society of Clinical Oncology to issue a statement about the topic last November. 

Healthcare providers themselves needed guidance about the urgency of lifestyle counseling about alcohol, explained Dr. LoConte. 

"There’s more data for counseling you to decrease alcohol than to eat broccoli or tofu," she said. 

Resources: 

• "Did Drinking Give Me Breast Cancer?," Mother Jones, May/June 2018
• "Alcohol Raises Cancer Risk. Does Quitting Lower It?," Mother Jones, May 7, 2018
• "Dr. Noelle LoConte leads authorship of American Society of Clinical Oncology statement on link between alcohol and cancer," Department of Medicine, January 18, 2018