Women weigh benefits, risks

She is a retired neurologist with a speciality in cancer of the nervous system and also a part-owner of Russian Hill Estate Winery near Windsor. So she gave special attention Wednesday to a study out of Great Britain that has received international coverage for its cautionary finding about women, drinking and cancer, including breast cancer.

Mack emphasized that the association between alcohol and breast cancer exists but remains weak, and that evidence that wine can benefit the heart remains strong.

"It's not like smoking and lung cancer," said Mack, who was formerly on the faculty of UC San Francisco.

Moreover, she said, moderate wine consumption provides "unquestionable" benefits to the heart that for many women far outweigh the risks of cancer.

The latest study is bound to spark discussions between women and their doctors over whether a glass of chardonnay each night might be too much.

After studying nearly 1.3 million middle-age British women, researchers concluded that just one drink a day increases the risk of cancer, including breast cancer. It didn't matter whether the drink was beer, wine or some other alcoholic beverage.

An estimated 5,000 cases of breast cancer in the United Kingdom -- 11 percent of the 45,000 cases diagnosed each year -- can be attributed to women's consumption of alcohol, according to a story on the BBC Web site.

In the heart of Wine Country, Dr. Amy Shaw, family physician and medical director of the Sutter Medical's North Bay Women's Health Center in Santa Rosa, said two breast cancer patients had called her Wednesday about the study.

Nonetheless, for Shaw and others familiar with breast cancer, the alcohol link isn't new and remains just one factor among many that can affect a woman's health.

"We jump all over these things and forget that exercise is so much more important," Shaw said. "Exercise is more beneficial than the one glass of wine is detrimental."

Breast cancer patients routinely are advised to consider limiting their alcohol, Shaw said, though it's uncommon for them to be told to abstain altogether.

"I'm not going to tell people don't do any," she said. "Because I'm not convinced that zero is better than one glass."

Mack acknowledged she has "become a believer" that some association exists between breast cancer and alcohol.

A key study for her came out about five years ago from Marin County. The women there who consumed two or more alcoholic drinks per day were diagnosed with breast cancer more than twice as often as those who drank less.

"That's when I started to think there is something real," she said.

It remains to be seen how such studies may affect the wine industry. But reaction was muted Wednesday.

The San Francisco-based Wine Institute, a key voice for the industry, noted in a press release that for more than three decades, "hundreds of studies" have associated moderate drinking with lower risk of cardiovascular diseases and other illness. The institute also suggested individuals consult their physicians.

Such consultation also was recommended by a spokeswoman for Cleavage Creek Winery of Napa County's Pope Valley. The winery features breast cancer survivors on its labels and donates 10 percent of its proceeds to fight the disease. The winery's owner, Budge Brown, was in South America and unavailable for comment.

But one of the women who has appeared on the winery's bottles said people need to understand but not make too much of risk factors.

Kathy Van Riper said she didn't have any of the common risk factors -- obesity, lack of exercise, family history or alcohol consumption -- but still was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 30. That was after giving birth to and breast-feeding her children, normally factors seen as benefits to ward off the disease.

"The only risk factor that matters is if you have breasts," said Van Riper, a long distance runner who started the nonprofit Kathy's Camp for Kids, for the children of parents with cancer. "It is a huge mystery, cancer, and that's the bottom line."