Drinking alcohol is a risk factor for several cancers. This guide updates previous guidance from SHAAP to summarise for health professionals the links between alcohol consumption and cancers using the latest data* so that health professionals can use opportunities in their work to intervene to reduce risks.

This guidance provides a summary of patterns of alcohol use in Scotland by age, gender and area deprivation and also provides statistics regarding alcohol attributable deaths to cancer in Scotland. There is strong epidemiological evidence to suggest that alcohol increases your risk of developing the following types of cancer:

• Cancer of the lip, oral cavity and pharynx
• Cancer of the larynx
• Cancer of the oesophagus
• Cancer of the breast
• Colorectal cancer
• Cancer of the liver and intrahepatic bile ducts

There is also a relationship between alcohol and cancer of the stomach, although this relationship is different from that of the cancers mentioned above. This will be expanded upon in the stomach cancer section. Additionally, there is some evidence that alcohol is associated with several other cancers such as pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma.