Cancer, Alcohol Link in Mice Explained

A University of Mississippi Medical Center study has described the mechanism by which alcohol consumption causes tumor growth in mice.

Dr. Jian-Wei Gu, an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said scientists have known for about 100 years that there is a strong association between alcohol consumption and several types of cancer.

Working in the lab, Gu and colleagues noticed the growth factor that stimulates vessel growth in tumors increased unexpectedly in some cell cultures.

The study, presented at the Federated Societies for Experimental Biology meeting, determined the alcohol they used as a solvent, in very low concentrations, caused the increase in the growth factor of blood vessels.

Gu found melanoma cancers in mice grew faster and larger in the mice that consumed the equivalent of one or two alcoholic drinks a day, compared to the mice without alcohol.

In earlier studies, investigators used alcohol concentrations of 20 percent, far more than the equivalent human consumption, according to Gu.