Current drinkers with an average lifetime intake of more than 14 drinks per week have a 25% greater risk of developing colorectal cancer and a 95% higher risk of developing rectal cancer compared with drinkers with an average lifetime alcohol intake of less than one drink a week.

That's the conclusion of a just-published study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute. The study was published in the journal Cancer. It followed 88,092 participants in NCI's Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial. After 20 years, 1,679 colorectal cancer cases had occurred.

No evidence of increased colorectal rish was seen among former drinkers, and former drinkers had lower odds of developing noncancerous colorectal tumors, which may become cancerous, than current drinkers who consumed less than one drink a week.

"Our study is one of the first to explore how drinking alcohol over the life course relates to both colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer risk. While the data on former drinkers were sparse, we were encouraged to see that their risk may return to that of the light drinkers," said co–senior author Erikka Loftfield, Ph.D., MPH, of the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health.