Alcohol could lower lymphoma risk

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

People who drink alcohol have a lower risk of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to a new study.
Alcohol is known to increase the risk of cancer of the esophagus and liver, but the results for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) have been conflicting. Now a team at the US National Institutes of Health have reviewed data covering 6,500 people with NHL and 8,600 health individuals. They find that the risk of NHL was 27 per cent lower for current drinkers than for non-drinkers.

The risk did not change with increasing alcohol consumption. However, it did vary with NHL subtype; the risk of Burkitt's lymphoma was halved among drinkers compared with non-drinkers. Further research is needed into why alcohol has this unexpectedly protective effect in NHL when it is a risk factor in other types of cancer.

Source
The Lancet Oncology online 7th June 2005