Alcoholic beverage consumption and breast cancer in a French case-control study.

An association between regular consumption of alcohol with meals and breast cancer was found in a French case-control study of 1,010 women with breast cancer and 1,950 women with nonmalignant diseases; the relative risk of breast cancer for women drinking alcoholic beverages with meals compared with nondrinkers was 1.47 (p = 10(-4) allowing for classical risk factors. Detailed information on alcohol consumption was obtained from 500 cases and 945 controls; the risks of breast cancer were greater for women drinking beer and for women drinking wine than for nondrinkers, and the risk increased with the amount of beer, of wine and of total alcohol consumption in grams of pure alcohol.