Not Enough Women are Aware of the Serious Link Between Breast Cancer and Alcohol Consumption

This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we are reminded that one in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Even more alarming is that breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women, besides skin cancers. Yet, many women aren’t aware of a modifiable risk factor that could be putting them at increased risk: alcohol consumption.

According to a survey published in 2025, only 30% of breast cancer survivors were aware of the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer, and only 26% said a medical professional had warned them about the risk.

This knowledge gap still exists despite the fact that alcohol has been identified as a carcinogenic for decades and is associated with six other cancers.

An advisory issued by the U.S. Surgeon General<> encouraged Americans to pay attention to this urgent public health issue, highlighting that the link between alcohol use and cancer was first established in the late 1980s, and evidence for this link has strengthened over time. For certain cancers, like breast cancer, evidence shows that this risk may start to increase around one or fewer drinks per day, and that the more alcohol someone consumes the greater the risk. Alcohol consumption is now considered the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, after tobacco and obesity.

“As more people researched breast cancer and the epidemiology of breast cancer, we started realizing a lot of these people are drinkers,” said Dr. Charles Smith, an addictionologist with Recovery First Treatment Center. “Alcohol is really lagging behind in public acknowledgement and public sentiment, a problem that eerily reminds me of the 1960s when people didn’t want to believe cigarettes caused lung cancer. The public largely believed it was a conspiracy theory. Sadly, it feels like history repeating itself, which is putting lives in danger.”

Dr. Smith points out that there are currently no warning labels of alcohol alerting women about the cancer risk similar to what you see on tobacco products. He also believes that primary care doctors could play a greater role in raising the alarm, particularly for women who are heavy. Even if these women don’t self-report, there are tell-tale signs in the bloodwork, including the size of red blood cells or the mean corpuscular volume (MCV) that can detect excessive alcohol use even after two to four months of abstinence.

“If I did your lab work, my next question would be, ‘How much do you drink,’ because the metabolic signs are often there, said Smith. “That’s an ideal time for a provider to alert the patient about the cancer connection.”

Studies have shown that stopping alcohol consumption is associated with a lower risk of cancer, but it may take years for the risk level to lower to that of nondrinkers.

“Alcohol use is something people can change to lower their cancer risk. Clear, effective communication paired with practical tools like updated warning labels that are evidence-based and widely supported by the public can close that gap,” said Naomi Greene, a senior research scientist in NORC’s Public Health department.

For some people, even knowing the risk doesn’t make it easy to change. In 2025, more 25 million Americans ages 12 and older struggled with alcohol use disorder. Still, education must be key to saving lives. This year alone, more than 42,000 women are expected to die from breast cancer.

It took years of sounding the alarm that smoking caused lung cancer before warning labels were added to cigarette packages and public perception shifted from smoking being glamorous to dangerous. According to the Smithsonian, 60 years ago about 42% of American adults identified themselves as smokers. By 2023, that number had dropped to 11% of adults. That progress was slow, and we lost many lives in the process. Hopefully, we can prevent history from repeating itself with alcohol.