• 4/3/2007
  • web-based article
  • staff
  • Daily Yomiuri Online (www.yomiuri.co.jp)

People whose faces turn red easily when they drink are more vulnerable to throat cancer, according to a study by the World Health Organization.

In research published in the April issue of the British medical magazine, the Lancet Oncology, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is affiliated to the WHO, reexamined the causal link between alcohol and cancer for the first time in 20 years, with the latest findings reflected in the study.

According to the study, alcohol, or ethanol, is the most significant source of cancer. While an enzyme called ALDH2, a kind of aldehyde dehydrogenates, plays an important role in breaking down alcohol, the study pointed out that people with the enzyme poorly functioning due to partial deficiency increase the risk for throat cancer depending on the amount of alcohol, by up to 12 times more than those with the normal enzyme.