Link between alcohol and cancer should not be overlooked by consumers, JGH oncologist advises
Risk of various cancers—including breast cancer—rises with amount consumed
Fear, shock, confusion—these were the feelings that Dr. Michael Pollak expected from the young woman in his office who had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. But as he continued to speak with her, she abruptly introduced some additional emotions into the turbulent mix: intense frustration and, above all, bewilderment.
“How could I have cancer?” she cried. “I have no risk factors!”
Dr. Pollak, who is Director of the Cancer Prevention Centre at the JGH, asked her to elaborate: Was there a history of cancer in her family? Not at all. Was she athletic? Very much so. Was she a smoker? Not now or ever.
“Then I asked her if she consumed alcohol,” he recalls. “She looked at me with great confidence and said, ‘No problem. I know it’s bad to drink too much, which is why I never have more than a bottle of wine a day.’”
Dr. Pollak sighs at the memory of the patient’s reply. “The problem isn’t that people don’t understand the importance of moderation,” he explains. “It’s that too many people don’t have a proper grasp of what moderation actually means in a practical sense.
“This is crucial, because the more alcohol you consume, the greater your risk of developing cancer.
“If someone says, ‘Every night with dinner, I have a couple of glasses of wine,’ that may be considered by some people to be a reasonable part of a modern lifestyle, but it’s definitely too much.
“Anytime you define your consumption by the number of drinks you take per day, that’s not moderation. Moderation means limiting yourself to a drink or two per week.”
To dispel common misconceptions and clarify the facts about the link between alcohol and cancer, Dr. Pollak will appear as a featured speaker at “A Toast to Prevention: The Wine Experience”, a special event at the JGH on Saturday, October 25. (See sidebar.)
The relaxing evening will blend live music, hors d’oeuvres and tastings of alcohol‑free drinks with insights into health, plus information about the rapidly improving taste and quality of alcohol‑free wine and other beverages.
A Toast to Prevention: The Wine Experience
When: Saturday, October 25 – 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Where: Jewish General Hospital, Carrefour Lea Polansky, Pavilion K, main floor
Price: $50 per person – proceeds to the Cancer Prevention Centre – tickets and more information on the event’s website.
On the program will be live music, hors d’oeuvres, interactive games and tastings of alcohol‑free wine, beer and mocktails (mock cocktails), along with presentations by local wine experts and restaurateurs, including the sommelier of Montreal’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
Dr. Pollak says that while the risks associated with smoking and obesity are widely recognized by the public, “it’s surprisingly rare for people to realize there’s also an increased cancer risk in consuming alcohol.
“The risk generally goes up with the amount you drink, and in some ways, it’s a lot like speeding. You might find a slow driver who gets into an accident or a speeder doesn’t. But on the whole, the faster you drive—or the more you drink—the greater are your chances of having a bad experience.”
Dr. Pollak hastens to add he’s “not a prohibitionist who feels alcohol should be illegal. Having a glass of wine at a wedding isn’t a bad thing; alcohol isn’t poison. But people should know what they’re getting into and what they can do to minimize their risk.”
This means understanding what constitutes an average drink. According to Dr. Pollak, roughly the same amount of alcohol is found in a 30-millilitre glass of wine, a 10‑millilitre shot of liquor and a 300-millilitre glass of beer. As well, a drink can be labelled “alcohol-free” only if its alcohol content is 0.5 per cent or less.
“The link between alcohol and breast cancer is probably the least known by the public,” Dr. Pollak says. “There are some instances where we haven’t seen a connection—brain cancer, for example. But there’s certainly an association with cancers of the breast, liver, mouth, throat and digestive system.”
He sees his role, and that of the Cancer Prevention Centre, as doing as much as possible to help people avoid the one-third to one-half of all cancers that are preventable.
“My goal is to meet no more patients who drink a glass of wine a day, then receive a cancer diagnosis and tell me, ‘I never knew,’” Dr. Pollak says.
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