Heavy Drinkers' Genes May Cut Cancer Risk

May 26, 2008— -- Could your genes actually help lower the risk of getting cancer when drinking alcohol? A new study says that this may be possible.

Researchers from Lyon, France, found that some people with certain variations in a gene involved in breaking down alcohol in the body appear to have a lower risk for developing certain alcohol-related cancers.

Paul Brennan, head of the genetic epidemiology group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and his colleagues studied more than 3,800 people in Europe and Latin America who had cancers of the respiratory tract and upper digestive tract. What they found is that those who had a particular variation in the genes known as ADH1B and ADH7 metabolized alcohol much faster than those without the variation -- about 100 times faster, to be exact.

The results were released Sunday in the journal Nature Genetics.

Several studies have shown that there are both risks and benefits to moderate alcohol intake. But past research has also found that alcohol consumption is a risk factor for oral cancer.

However, this study found that having a variation of ADH1B or ADH7 may be "cancer protective" in people who are moderate to heavy drinkers. The greater the amount of alcohol the people with the variant gene consumed, the more significant the protective effect researchers saw.

The study did not see the variant gene provide cancer protection in nondrinkers. It's like our bodies were designed to have this protective mechanism "kick in" in the event that we overindulge.

Now the bad news: The benefits extend only to those of us who carry the gene. In the study population, only approximately 3 percent to 12 percent were so lucky.

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 79,000 Americans die every year because of excessive alcohol use, making it the third-leading lifestyle-related cause of death for the nation.

Could this variant gene somehow help to minimize the negative effect of excessive alcohol intake? Maybe, and maybe not.