By Gurmukh Singh

Toronto, Aug 4 (IANS): Heavy drinkers of beer and spirits are at much higher risk of developing cancer, says a study by Canadian epidemiologists and cancer researchers in Montreal.

The first-ever study to establish link between drinking and cancer shows that heavy drinkers face higher risk of developing oesophageal cancer sevenfold, colon cancer by 80 percent and lung cancer by 50 percent.

The researchers said they found statistically significant relationships between heavy consumption of beer and spirits and six different cancers. But moderate drinking (less than one daily) and wine consumption did not show the same effects, the researchers said.

The research was conducted by Andrea Benedetti of McGill University, Marie-Elise Parent of INRS-Institut Armand Frappier and Jack Siemiatycki of Montreal University - all based in Montreal.

"We looked at the data in two ways," study leader Andrea Benedetti, who is an assistant professor at McGill University's departments of medicine and epidemiology, biostatistics and occupational health, has been quoted as saying in a statement by Montreal University.

"We compared people who drank heavily to our reference group, who abstained or drank only very occasionally. We also looked for trends across our categories: non-drinkers, weekly drinkers and daily drinkers," she said.

Benedetti said the results were astounding. "We saw increased risk for esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer. The strongest risk was for esophageal and liver cancer," she said.

"This study crystallizes many strands of evidence from different studies on different types of cancer and alcohol consumption," added Jack Siematycki, professor of Canada Research Chair and Guzzo Chair in Environment and Cancer at Montreal University.

The researchers used data originally collected for a large occupational cancer study conducted in Montreal in the 1980s.

The information was a treasure-trove, said Benedetti.

"Lifetime interviews were conducted with people about their job histories, and detailed information about all the things they could have been exposed to was collected," she said.

"The data also included information about non-occupational factors such as drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, diet and socio-economic status, among others."

She said light drinkers were less affected or not affected at all.

"It is people who drink every day or multiple times a day who are at risk. This adds to the growing body of evidence that heavy drinking is extremely unhealthy in so many ways. Cancer very much included," the Canadian said.

The study has been published in the current issue of the journal Cancer Detection and Prevention.