Women who have more than two alcoholic drinks a day double their risk of endometrial cancer compared with those who drink less, a new study finds.

Researchers examined a multiethnic group of 41,574 post-menopausal women, following them for an average of eight years and using questionnaires about diet and drinking habits.

In that time, the team found 324 cases of endometrial cancer, the type that forms in the tissue that lines the uterus. According to the National Cancer Institute, the United States has 40,000 new cases of endometrial cancer a year and as many as 7,400 deaths.

After controlling for variables, including body mass index, age, hormone therapy and whether they had been pregnant, the researchers found that women who had less than two drinks a day had no increased risk of endometrial cancer. But those who had more than two drinks a day had slightly more than twice the risk. It made no difference whether the women drank beer, wine or hard liquor.

The exact mechanism is unknown, but alcohol raises estrogen levels, and it is well established that prolonged exposure to estrogen increases mutations and DNA replication errors, predecessors of cancerous growths.

"Relatively few studies have examined the relationship between endometrial cancer and drinking," said Veronica Wendy Setiawan, the lead researcher and an assistant professor of research at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. "If this is a true association, that's one more lifestyle change women can make."

The study appeared online Aug. 31 and will be published in a future print issue of The International Journal of Cancer.

Screening must

Doctors know that siblings and other close family members of people who have heart attacks are at increased risk for heart problems of their own. So when patients are brought to a hospital, why not identify them and suggest that they get a screening?

That is the suggestion made in a report by researchers from the University of Glasgow in Scotland in the September issue of BMJ.

The researchers pointed to a number of studies showing that first-degree relatives – siblings, children and parents – are much more likely to have heart problems. Among the studies was one done in Utah reporting that more than 70 percent of heart attacks and other medical problems related to early heart disease involved just 14 percent of families in the state.

There are several explanations. Simple genetics accounts for much of the increased risk. But close relatives of people with unhealthy behaviours like poor eating or smoking are more likely to do the same things.

"First-degree relatives are an obvious but neglected group at which primary prevention should be targeted," the authors wrote.