Some of the published data suggest that acetaldehyde generated during alcohol metabolism may be involved in alcohol-associated development of cancer (i.e., carcinogenesis) in breast tissue, especially in women with higher alcohol consumption. If this evidence is confirmed, women with high levels of daily alcohol consumption who also are homozygous for the highly active ADH1C*1 allele may be at particularly high risk of developing breast cancer. In addition, there is some evidence that alcohol, even at low doses, increases serum estrogens under certain conditions and that this effect may be another important mechanism involved in alcohol’s cocarcinogenic actions.
