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Scientists Have Wondered in the Past Why Drinkers Suffer More Than Twice the Usual Rate of Breast, Liver & Digestive System Cancers; They Think They Now Know the Answer
Aug 12, 2006

Scientists have wondered in the past why drinkers suffer more than twice the usual rate of breast, liver and digestive system cancers. Researchers from the US and Israel think they now know the answer: Tumors are more likely to spread after a bout of heavy drinking.
Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/8/prweb423495.htm

(PRWEB) August 12, 2006 -- Scientists have wondered in the past why drinkers suffer more than twice the usual rate of breast, liver and digestive system cancers. Researchers from the US and Israel think they now know the answer: Tumors are more likely to spread after a bout of heavy drinking.

Gayle Page of Ohio State University in Comlumbia and her colleagues injected rats with tumor cells that try to migrate to the lungs, but found out that these are destroyed by the immune system's natural killer cells. However, when the tumors were injected into rats given alcohol, they found that 40 times as many cancer cells lodged in the animal lungs.

The researchers said the effects of alcohol on natural killer cells have previously been understimated, probably because the process of extracting the cells from the blood washes away the alcohol and gives the cells time to recover. The researchers add, however that the risk was temporary: if the injection of tumor cells were delayed by 24 hours after the rats were given alcohol, the tumors were no more likely to lodge in the lungs than in rats who are sober.

They said the increased risk appeared when the rats blood contained more than .2 percent alcohol. - Health Alert

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