

Alcohol Activates Cellular Changes That Make Tumor Cells Spread - hachiya
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091026172052.htm

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noonespecial
Sounds like they might be down far enough where they're just picking patterns
out of the static. Like my old boss used to say, _"If you feed a rat a box-car
of anything, it gets cancer."_

From the same publication:

Alcohol Drinking Linked To Reduced Risk Of Renal Cell Cancer

[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070515175026.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070515175026.htm)

Red Wine Protects The Prostate, Research Suggests

[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070525215203.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070525215203.htm)

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scorpioxy
I agree. I think these publications that take things to the extreme are
definitely bad for science and misleading to the general public. You just know
that some news outlet, on a slow news days when the swine flu spread slows
down, will take this and post it as its main headline.

Anything not done in moderation will be bad for you. For example, drinking too
much water will cause water intoxication.

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hachiya
The Rush University Medical Center researchers also found evidence for a link
between alcohol _initiating_ cancer:

    
    
        In addition, Forsyth and his colleagues found that the same roster of
        biomarkers was activated in normal intestinal cells treated with alcohol,
        suggesting that alcohol not only worsens the profile of existing cancer cells
        but also may initiate cancer by stimulating the epithelial-to-mesenchymal
        transition.

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tptacek
Alcohol usage is down slightly from an apparent peak in the early '70s. Cancer
is up, including colon cancer. The CDC has both alcohol and cancer statistics
broken down by state. Do more Nevadans get colon cancer? Do fewer Arkansans?
Because Nevadans drink a lot, and (believe or not), Arkansans don't.

Correlation isn't causation, but causation usually comes with at least a
little correlation.

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bvttf
I wouldn't want to say there's no correlation without controlling for, well, a
lot.

This looked at breast and colon cancer, which could be drowned out by noise
from other cancers if this doesn't apply to them, for one. Other sources of
cancer like diet, smoking, and being constantly irradiated would vary on a
national level.

Also, the post seems focused on cancer becoming metastatic, which wouldn't be
the same as cancer incidence, and looking at cancer deaths isn't helpful
either because of variations in treatment, etc.

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zackattack
Well alcohol already has been demonstrated to cause cancer because it depletes
thiamine.

Can someone please explain how tissue becomes mesenchymal from epithelium? I
thought they were two different tissue types and therefore discrete classes of
cancer.

