Last night I drank some chardonnay with dinner and wondered about the effects on cancer. I looked into this a bit and discovered, for my current cancer type of melanoma, white wine is the worst choice of alcoholic beverage to choose.

About 3.6 percent of all cancers are associated with alcohol consumption¹.A review² of effects of alcohol on tumor growth, metastasis, immune response, and host survival described;

 “Cancers for which strong epidemiological evidence indicates that alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk include, but are not limited to, esophageal, laryngeal, pharyngeal, stomach, colorectal, liver, pancreas, lung, prostate, breast, central nervous system, and skin cancers”.

Cancers and Acetaldehyde

Alcohol in general is known to cause carcinogenesis via acetaldehyde which is not only a toxic biproduct of metabolising alcohol, it is also a pre-existing carcinogen in some alcoholic beverages such as white wine.

“Red and white wines have similar pre-existing acetaldehyde content, but antioxidants in red wine may offset these risks; experiments show that blood acetaldehyde content and cytotoxicity are much lower after red versus white wine consumption”.³

If you do decide to drink a white wine, choose an early picked grape such as a sweet Traminer variety as this doesn’t cellar well, or a young Riesling as these probably has less acetaldehyde levels than older aged wine varieties such as chardonnay. Acetaldehyde levels increase as wines age due to the chemical oxidation of ethanol.

Alcohol and Melanoma

An analysis³ of three studies in America of 1,374 cases of invasive melanoma found;

“… alcohol consumption was associated with modest increased risk of melanoma. Among alcoholic beverages, white wine consumption was associated with increased risk of melanoma independent of other alcoholic beverages. The positive association between alcohol consumption and melanoma risk was stronger for melanoma in relatively UV-spared sites (trunk) than relatively UV-exposed sites (head, neck, or extremities)”.

“The association between alcohol consumption and risk of melanoma in situ was stronger in women than in men”.

“Alcohol may also act as a photosensitizer and the combination of UV radiation and alcohol consumption may potentiate the skin carcinogenesis⁴. However, the stronger association with melanoma of UV-spared sites than UV-exposed sites supports against the mechanism”.

So, given all that, I think it’s probably time to bypass the chards.

For more about melanoma, see a growth pathway and All Cancers Omelette,

REFERENCES

1.            Seitz HK, Stickel F. Molecular mechanisms of alcohol-mediated carcinogenesis. Nat Rev Cancer. 2007;7(8):599-612.

2.            Meadows GG, Zhang H. Effects of Alcohol on Tumor Growth, Metastasis, Immune Response, and Host Survival. Alcohol Res. 2015;37(2):311-322.

3.            Rivera A, Nan H, Li T, Qureshi A, Cho E. Alcohol Intake and Risk of Incident Melanoma: A Pooled Analysis of Three Prospective Studies in the United States. Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology. 2016;25(12):1550-1558.

4.            Saladi RN, Nektalova T, Fox JL. Induction of skin carcinogenicity by alcohol and ultraviolet light. Clin Exp Dermatol. 2010;35(1):7-11.