1.20 Alcohol and cancer in women. A Washington Post article reported on a study about alcohol consumption and cancer in women. Since 1996, a team of British researchers has been gathering detailed information from 1.28 million women aged 50 to 64. The researchers recorded how much alcohol the women reported consuming when they volunteered for the study and again three years later. The researchers then examined whether there was any link with the 68,775 cancers the women developed over an average of the next seven years. They found that even among women who consumed as little as 10 grams of alcohol a day on average (the equivalent of about one drink), the risk for cancer of the breast, liver, and rectum was elevated.