New study finds link between alcohol consumption and melanoma

December 9, 2016

A new study has found a link between consuming alcohol and developing melanoma, a less common but more serious type of skin cancer.

The biggest association between drinking white wine and the development of invasive melanoma was found in white men and women. Surprisingly, the increased risk was greater for parts of the body that receive less sun exposure.

Unfortunately, the number of cases of melanoma in the US has been rising. According to the American Cancer Society, there will be more than 76,000 new melanoma cases diagnosed in the US in 2016, and more than 10,000 people are expected to die of the disease this year.

The risk of melanoma is more than 20 times higher for people with light skin, the American Cancer Society reports. Having blonde hair or skin that freckles or burns easily also raises a person’s risk, but genetics can also be a factor.

Researchers from Brown University in Rhode Island in the US analyzed data from three large prospective cohort studies in which 210,252 participants were followed for about 18 years. Scientists analyzed food-frequency questionnaires to figure out how much alcohol they consumed and how often.

Researchers discovered that any alcohol intake was linked with a 14% higher risk of melanoma per drink per day. And each glass of white wine a day was associated with an additional 13% increased risk of melanoma.

However, other forms of alcohol, like beer, red wine, and liquor, did not significantly have an impact on a person’s melanoma risk.

The link between alcohol and melanoma was greatest for the parts of the body that usually get less sun exposure. People who had 20 g or more of alcohol a day (about a glass and a half of wine or less than two bottles of beer) were 2% more likely to have melanomas on their head, neck, arms, or legs but were 73% more likely to have them on their back or stomach.

However, Gary Goldenberg, MD, medical director of the dermatology faculty practice at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, says it may not actually be due to the alcohol itself. Instead, it may be the fact that those who tend to drink more than the recommended amount are also more likely to make other poor health decisions such as smoking, eating a poor diet, and having too much sun exposure, which is linked to the development of melanoma.

He also said that he is not shocked by the findings as other studies have already shown that patients who drink alcoholic beverages, especially more than the recommended amount, have been associated with increased rate of skin cancer.

As for the increased risk of developing melanoma on the trunk, Goldenberg says that melanoma is mostly related to sunburn, but those areas of least sun exposure may have been burned in the past. Having a sunburn before the age of 18 and genetics are big factors in melanoma, he notes.

Goldenberg points out that this is an association study, meaning scientists found that people who drink more are also more likely to develop melanomas — not that drinking more causes melanomas. “One has to be very careful to draw conclusions,” he says.

Goldenberg says you don’t need to swear off your regular glass of wine based on these findings; you just need to be smart about it and your other lifestyle choices. “Having a healthy lifestyle, which includes sun avoidance and use of sunscreen, moderate alcohol consumption, no smoking, and a healthy diet, are all important,” he says. “Poor lifestyle choices have been associated with skin cancer as well as other diseases.”

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