Publish date: 18 February 2025
For Cancer Prevention Action Week, alcohol specialist nurse Andrea Toop writes about the links between alcohol and cancer, and how our alcohol care team can help
Cancer Prevention Action Week focuses on empowering people to make changes to their lifestyle to reduce the risks of preventable cancers. One way to reduce the risk of some cancers is to address alcohol use. The World Health Organisation emphasises that there is no safe amount of alcohol that does not affect your health.
There is strong evidence that alcohol use increases the risk of 7 different types of cancers. These are breast, bowel, liver, mouth and throat, oesophagus and stomach. Alcohol is a group 1 carcinogen. It causes cancer through biological mechanisms as the compound breaks down in the body.
This means that any drink containing alcohol, regardless of its price and quality, poses a risk of developing cancer. There were an estimated 17,000 new cases of cancer in the UK caused by alcohol in 2020.
Closer to home, the latest North East figures show almost 500 deaths a year from cancer because of alcohol. Every 2 years in the North East, up to 1,580 women and 1,640 men are diagnosed with an alcohol-related cancer. The most common cancer for women associated with alcohol is breast cancer. For men, it’s bowel cancer.
All patients admitted to our hospitals are screened for their alcohol use, with a World Health Organisation tool. This is an effective screening tool for the full spectrum of alcohol misuse and designed to determine the risk of alcohol harms. It determines if the risks are low, increasing, and higher risk and those with a possible dependency.
The tool uses the principles of Making Every Contact Count to make the most of contact with patients to discuss their health and well-being. For those patients scoring at increasing and higher risks levels, this provides an opportunity for staff to advise on alcohol harms, including the risk of cancer.
Those patients identified as possible dependency are automatically referred to alcohol care team (ACT). A hospital admission often provides the first opportunity for alcohol dependence or alcohol-related harms to be identified and diagnosed.
The ACT has a mix of experienced practitioners from diverse backgrounds who understand the complexity of alcohol misuse, dependency, and the individuality of recovery. We believe everyone should be able to access the support they need, without shame or stigma.
Those inpatients who have been referred to the ACT will undergo a holistic assessment process. This includes their alcohol history, withdrawal history, social situation and recovery plans. They are supported throughout admission and signposted to community services. The ACT creates individually tailored care plans, introducing psychosocial interventions, behavioural counselling, and education about alcohol-related issues.
The ACT has effective relationships with local partnerships to make sure there’s a join-up approach, so patients and their families get continuity of care.
Establishing rapport with our patients is crucial. Our patients are vulnerable and need a non-judgmental and honest approach. We create an environment where patients feel comfortable sharing their experiences and challenges.
This allows us to identify potential safeguarding concerns. Raising these often results in extra support for these patients to support their recovery and contribute to improved outcomes.