Only a fifth of women in Europe are aware that alcohol is a risk factor for breast cancer, according to the World Health Organization.
The link between breast cancer and alcohol – Photo Archive
More precisely, 21% of women know that alcohol can promote the occurrence of breast cancer, a condition that represents a health problem “majority” in the region, warns the European branch of the WHO, according to Agerpres.
“21% of women from 14 European countries are aware of the link between alcohol consumption and the risk of developing breast cancer. Awareness is even lower among men: only 10% of them know this connection“, announced in a press release WHO Europe, which brings together 53 countries from a region that stretches to Central Asia.
In Europe, 600,000 cases of breast cancer were registered in 2022.
“For women in Europe, breast cancer is the leading cancer caused by alcohol, accounting for 66% of all alcohol-attributable cancers“, revealed the same UN agency.
Estrogen levels are affected by alcohol consumption. Estrogen plays a role in the development of many breast cancers. Even a relatively low consumption of alcohol can contribute to increasing this risk, warned the WHO.
“More than half of alcohol-attributable breast cancers in Europe are not due to excessive alcohol consumption and around a third of new cases each year are caused by drinking the equivalent of two small glasses of wine per dayi”, states the WHO.
That is why changing habits related to alcohol consumption in Europe is important, draws the attention of the WHO, noting that they have not changed since 2010, thanks to new public policies.
Moreover, the data shows that this type of cancer is the most common in the EU, with 355,000 people diagnosed in 2020 alone. Practically, approximately 1 in 11 women in the EU will develop breast cancer before the age of 74, according to the publication Raportul de Gardă.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer detected, with 2.3 million cases worldwide in 2022, according to WHO data.
The study presented by WHO Europe was carried out in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Estonia, France, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden.
In our country, the latest studies show that almost 9,700 women are diagnosed with breast cancer nationally, and the number of deaths reaches 3,209, according to Capital newspaper.
