Drinking alcohol puts a person at greater risk for developing cancer — and binge drinking may increase that risk significantly because it overwhelms the body’s ability to filter out the toxins that are rapidly being swallowed.
Late last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, M.D., issued an advisory warning that outlines the direct link between alcohol use and cancer risk, even for those who drink in moderation. He asked Congress to update health warning labels on all alcoholic beverages about the link between drinking alcohol and cancer risk.
The Midwest has the highest percentage nationally of adults who binge drink, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Figures for 2022 show that 17% of adults surveyed in the country reported binge drinking in the previous 30 days, with the level reaching 21.8% among Wisconsin adults and 18.3% in Illinois.
“Binge drinking, say a six-pack on Saturday vs. one beer every day for six days, produces those toxins at a very high level in the circulation,” says Pankaj Vashi, M.D., vice chief of staff at City of Hope® Cancer Center Chicago. “The damage to healthy tissue is much more significant in binge drinkers than in people who drink the same amount over the period of one week.”
When the health consequences of drinking alcohol are considered, the cancer risk is often overlooked. In fact, most Americans aren’t even aware of alcohol’s cancer-causing potential, the U.S. surgeon general reported in the 2025 Alcohol and Cancer Risk general advisory.
And that potential is real.
“Alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, after tobacco and obesity,” the advisory says. There is scientific evidence linking drinking alcohol to at least seven different types of cancer, including:
- Breast cancer
- Colorectal cancer
- Esophageal cancer
- Liver cancer
- Mouth cancer
- Throat cancer
- Voice box (larynx) cancer
While lower levels of drinking may lead to cancer, the heavy drinking reported in the Midwest may increase that likelihood markedly.
In this article, we’ll explore:
- Alcohol and cancer risk: What Midwesterners should know
- Lowering risk among Midwestern alcohol consumers
- Resources on reducing alcohol use
- Cancer screenings and risk evaluations in the Midwest
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer and is looking for a second opinion, call us 24/7 at (877) 524-4673.
Alcohol and Cancer Risk: What Midwesterners Should Know
The Midwest knows something about ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol. The region’s corn is used to produce the lion’s share of ethanol that helps fuel America’s cars and trucks.
But what many Midwesterners probably don’t realize is that ethanol is also being produced during the fermentation process at breweries, distilleries and vineyards. Simply put, the alcohol in the beverage you’re drinking is ethanol. It doesn’t make a difference if you’re having beer, wine, whiskey or liqueur.
“Multiple studies have shown that giving rats and mice drinking water with ethanol (the same type of pure alcohol in alcohol-containing beverages) or its primary metabolic breakdown product, acetaldehyde, results in increased tumor numbers at multiple places in the body,” the surgeon general said. “At high levels, such as those that occur with consumption of alcohol, acetaldehyde is highly toxic and cancer-causing.”
The alcohol connection to cancer was first established in the late 1980s, and the evidence has grown stronger since then, the surgeon general said. "Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States — greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the U.S. — yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk.”
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 recommend that, at most, imbibing at a moderate level, that men have no more than two drinks per day and women no more than one, the CDC says. However, it cautions that even moderate drinking may cause health harms. Binge drinking raises extra alarms.
“The risk of cancer increases as the level of consumption increases with higher risk at higher levels of consumption,” the surgeon general said. “For certain cancers, like breast, mouth and throat cancers, evidence shows that this risk may start to increase around one or fewer drinks per day.”
Binge drinking is defined as five or more drinks on any one occasion for men, and four or more drinks for women. It doesn’t take as much as you might think to get there. One bottle of a higher-alcohol craft brew would count as two drinks. Each shot in that fancy cocktail with the clever name counts as a separate drink. For wine, five ounces is the standard drink size, so a large glass would also be treated as multiple drinks.
In the CDC behavioral risk report for 2022, the average binge drinker in Wisconsin was having 5.8 drinks on a single occasion and in Illinois the number was 5.6.
Dr. Vashi says the typical person knows something about the possible side effects of drinking alcohol, such as sleep disorders, ulcers, acid reflux, heart ailments and impaired cognitive functioning — but that knowledge is incomplete.
“They will notice the symptom. They will notice the heart part. They will notice the ulcer pain. But they will never think, ‘two to three drinks, two to four drinks every day, I’m risking getting this cancer,’” Dr. Vashi says. “I think they don’t know that relationship as well as they should.”
Lowering Risk Among Midwestern Alcohol Consumers
The surgeon general said the current recommendations for moderate drinking levels need to be reassessed given the latest evidence about alcohol’s connection to cancer, in the hope that reducing those levels will encourage people to drink less. Also, according to the surgeon general, the health-warning labels on alcoholic beverages should be updated “to include a warning about the risk of cancer associated with alcohol consumption.”
One way Wisconsin is trying to make an impact is by focusing on underage drinkers. The Wisconsin Cancer Collaborative has teamed up with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and its Small Talks campaign to spread the word about the dangers of underage drinking.
In the 2023 Wisconsin Youth Risk Assessment Survey, 26.2% of students reported having at least one alcoholic drink in the previous 30 days — and 3.4% reported having 10 or more drinks in a row during that time period.
It’s important that the message get through to underage and young adult drinkers, so they can make good decisions going forward.
“When a primary care physician conducts annual physicals of healthy people, for younger people coming out of college and who have partied a lot, that’s a time to start talking to them about the long-term effects of alcohol,” Dr. Vashi says. “Alcohol is not going to give you cancer in a year or two of drinking. It’s the impact of drinking for 15, 20, 30 years. That’s why you see cancer diagnoses in people in their 50s and 60s, because they started drinking starting in their college days.”
Other ways of reducing alcohol consumption require government or business strategies.
A 2021 analysis published by the Wisconsin State Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse made the following recommendations for preventing and reducing excessive alcohol use in the state:
- Raise the price of alcohol to reduce youth consumption and binge or heavy drinking.
- Reduce how many places sell alcohol in any given location.
- Use alcohol compliance checks to make sure underage children aren’t being sold alcohol.
- Have primary care centers, such as hospital emergency rooms, conduct screenings and brief interventions for people assessed to be at-risk substance abusers.
- Collect information on where arrested DUI drivers had their last drink to monitor for over-serving.
In Illinois, the Chicago Department of Public Health supports screenings, brief interventions and referral to treatment as a means of curbing harmful alcohol use, according to a 2019 city report, Alcohol Use and Outcomes in Chicago.
The department also monitors specific events that contribute to increased alcohol consumption, to ensure that local medical facilities are prepared to handle event-related emergencies.
Resources on Reducing Alcohol Use
In the Midwest, higher alcohol use is sometimes attributed to a culture of drinking. Alcohol can seem omnipresent, whether it’s tailgating at a football game, going to a bar to listen to a band, being outdoors to hunt or fish, or just sitting around a campfire on a chilly night.
But there are individual ways people can get into the habit of drinking less, the CDC says. They include:
- Set limits ahead of time on how much and how often you drink, then stick to them. Make sure your week includes alcohol-free days.
- Count your drinks, so you’re always aware of your alcohol intake on any occasion.
- Limit your exposure to people, places and things that tempt you to drink more. For instance, you can suggest meeting up with a friend for lunch rather than for happy hour.
- Seek out friends, family members and other acquaintances who will support you in your choice to drink less.
“How much you drink is very important,” Dr. Vashi says. “There’s a level beyond which, if you do it on a regular basis, it’s definitely going to make you a high-risk patient for certain cancer types.”
It’s also important to seek professional help if you or others suspect you might be abusing alcohol.
Cancer Screenings and Risk Evaluations in the Midwest
There’s no fool-proof way to ensure you don’t get cancer. It’s important to talk with your doctor when you’re experiencing unusual symptoms to determine their cause and to recognize whether additional testing may be needed.
City of Hope has screenings and risk evaluation assessments for patients to better understand whether they may have or be at risk of developing cancer — whether they drink or not.
City of Hope has a team of experts serving Chicago and the surrounding areas, with locations in Lake County, downtown Chicago and the North Shore. Its team of experts delivers leading-edge treatments and whole-person supportive care, and its multidisciplinary teams can provide access to appointments within 24 hours, along with same-day diagnostics and 48-hour pathology results.
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer and is looking for a second opinion, call us 24/7 at (877) 524-4673.