Drinking despite Low Alcohol Tolerance Ups Stomach Cancer Risk

Tokyo, March 15 (Jiji Press)--Drinking despite low alcohol tolerance may increase the risk of developing a highly malignant type of stomach cancer, a study by a Japanese research team has shown.

In the study, published in the online edition of the U.S. journal Nature Genetics, the team said it found some patterns of mutations associated with alcohol intake in a large-scale genomic analysis of tissue samples collected from stomach cancer patients.

Stomach cancer is divided into the intestinal type, mainly caused by helicobacter pylori infections, and the diffuse type whose main cause is unclear. The latter includes hard-to-cure scirrhous stomach cancer.

The team, including members from the National Cancer Center and the University of Tokyo, analyzed tissue collected from 1,457 patients in various countries, including Japan, China and South Korea, and found genomic abnormalities common among suffers of the diffuse type.

It also discovered that the mutation patterns, linked to difficulty breaking down alcohol and alcohol consumption, may lead to the onset of stomach cancer.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]