Kingsbridge

Women who drink more than a glass of wine a day could increase the risk of developing breast cancer, a study warns.

The National Cancer Institute study of more than 180,000 post-menopausal women over a seven year period revealed that drinking one large glass of wine daily increases the risk by almost a third.

And women who consume two glasses of wine a day are about 50 per cent more likely to develop breast cancer than those who never drink.

Jasmine Lew, lead researcher at the National Cancer Institute, said: "Our study shows that not only does a small amount of alcohol significantly increase the risk of breast cancer, it increases the risk of the most common type of breast cancer, responsible for round 70 per cent of cases."

A spokesperson for Cancer Research UK added: "There is a large body of research which shows that alcohol can cause breast cancer, probably by increasing levels of the hormone oestrogen."

The research was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 2008 Annual Meeting.

Research conducted by Imaginis shows that breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women (after lung cancer) worldwide and is the most common type of cancer found among women in the world.

According to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), around 1.5 million people worldwide will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008.

The disease kills about 12,000 women in the UK every year.

For more information about breast cancer, visit www.999breastcancer.com.

The article Drinking increases breast cancer risk originally appeared on 999 Today