ALCOHOL UPS PROSTRATE CANCER RISK

Moderate consumption may indeed be good for various parts of the body but the prostate doesn’t seem to benefit. A new study led by Lionel L. Bañez, MD, at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, and colleagues suggests that drinking alcoholic beverages may increase prostate cancer dramatically. The study, which was presented at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, showed that men who had three alcoholic drinks regularly each week were 2.46 times as likely as those who did not drink alcohol to develop prostate cancer. African Americans were five times as likely to get prostate cancer while Caucasians were only 85 percent more likely to acquire the disease if they drank that much alcohol. The difference has something to do with genetics, researchers said. The study involved 334 men undergoing prostate biopsies at Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center from 2OO7 to 2OO9.