NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Auckland, New Zealand, 10/08/2009 - Dove Medical Press - A new review, published in the medical journal Breast Cancer: Targets and Therapy, suggests that moderate alcohol consumption increases breast cancer risk.

Breast Cancer is the outcome of multiple environmental and hereditary factors. Some of the factors include genetic mutations, failure of the immune surveillance, inherited defects in DNA repair genes (such as BRCA1 and BRCA 2) and impaired signaling pathways important for breast epithelial cell growth. Diet, stress and level of drinking alcohol further increases women's risk of developing breast cancer. Alcohol increases the risk 9-12% for each extra alcohol drink the person consumes on an average daily basis. Alcohol functions as a mitogenic tumor promoter by exerting its effects through multiple mechanisms, such as reactive oxygen species matrix metalloproteases, the ErbB2/Her2/Neu receptor kinases and estrogen receptor.

In a new review published in the medical journal Breast Cancer: Targets and Therapy (published by Dove Medical Press) Christopher P.Mill, Julia Chester and David Riese II (from Purdue University) found a common feature of these mechanisms is revealed to be as increased in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling. The authors strongly suggest that EGFR couples moderate alcohol consumption with increased breast cancer risk via enhanced EGFR signaling. Therefore, alcohol intake as well as diet and stress levels can impact the risk of breast cancer. Healthy habits such as eating a healthy diet that is low in fat and high in whole grains, fruits and vegetables, getting regular exercise and reduced consumption of alcohol, should all lead to help in preventing breast cancer.

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