- Research is ongoing about how consuming wine may affect the risk of cancer.
- A recent meta-analysis did not find an association between consuming wine and overall cancer risk, regardless of wine type.
- White wine appeared to increase the risk for cancer when only cohort studies were considered, and to increase the risk for skin cancer and cancer, in general, in women.
Alcohol consumption may increase the risk for some
However, there is ongoing research about red wine, with some evidence supporting that red wine might decrease some cancer risk.
A meta-analysis of observational studies published in Nutrients sought to compare the potential effects of white and red wine on cancer risk.
In their analysis of 42 studies, researchers did not find red or white wine to be associated with overall cancer risk.
However, when they looked at only cohort studies, they found white wine consumption was associated with an increased risk for cancer.
White wine consumption was also associated with an increased risk for cancer in women and an increased risk for skin cancer.
The authors of this meta-analysis note the research regarding wine consumption and cancer risk has been mixed.
For the current meta-analysis, researchers from the Brown University School of Public Health, the Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School, and Harvard Medical School sought to compare red and white wine consumption and how each beverage affects overall and site-specific cancer risk.
First, they conducted a comprehensive search of the Embase and Pubmed digital archives to find relevant studies. They excluded studies that did not specify the type of wine and articles like literature reviews and experimental studies.
They included 22 case-control studies and 20 cohort studies in the final meta-analysis. Researchers did subgroup analyses looking at wine type and cancer type when there were more than three studies regarding the cancer type.
They examined several site-specific cancers, including prostate cancer, female breast cancer, skin, and lung cancer.
They also conducted analsyses only including the cohort studies since these have less bias risk.
Thirty-seven of the studies looked at site-specific cancer and consumption of red and white wine, while five only looked at red wine.
When researchers compared the greatest to the lowest wine intake, they did not find an association between wine intake and cancer risk. They also did not observe a difference in how red wine or white wine affected cancer risk.
Study author Eunyoung Cho, ScD, associate professor of epidemiology and dermatology at Brown School of Public Health, explained the following to Medical News Today:
“While it’s well-known that alcohol (including wine) consumption increases the risk of cancer, many people consider red wine to be a healthier option due to its higher levels of antioxidants compared to white wine. However, there have been few large-scale studies directly comparing red wine to white wine in terms of cancer risk, which was why we decided to conduct this meta-analysis. Our findings revealed no significant difference in cancer risk between red and white wine overall. The main message is that there are no safe alcoholic beverages in terms of cancer prevention.”
This meta-analysis has some limitations. The studies were observational, so the findings cannot show a causal relationship.
The studies used self-reported food frequency questionnaires, and not all the studies used validated food frequency questionnaires. This could have led to misclassification and a minimization of the findings.
Researchers acknowledge recall bias may be more likely to occur in case-control studies than in cohort studies but they also looked at the results examining only the cohort studies.
The authors only used two databases to conduct their literature search. They also faced potential limitations from their inclusion and exclusion criteria, the information they chose to extract from each of the included studies, and the methods they chose to use, as well as possible publication bias.
The researchers acknowledge that the observed increase in skin cancer risk in white wine drinkers might be related to different demographic and lifestyle factors between white and red wine drinkers.
However, the included studies did account for other skin cancer risk factors, so the researchers suggest that the results likely reflect the true effect of white wine on skin cancer risk.
For some cancer sites, they only had a limited number of studies to examine. This meta-analysis also had the biggest sample size related to skin cancer risk.
Researchers acknowledge that this could have given them enough statistical power to see a difference between red and white wine consumption. This needed amount may have been lacking for the other cancer types.
They also could only include a certain number of studies in the dose-response analyses, primarily case-control studies. Finally, the authors note, “[p]otential regression dilution bias in the included cohort studies might have also played a role in underestimating summary risk estimates.”
Brian Black, DO, an osteopathic physician specializing in family medicine, who was not involved in this work, noted to MNT that:
“Looking at the study as I observe with nonsubstantial overall difference in risk of cancer between the two, it does challenge the stated popular perception that red wine is healthier. I found the limitations of the analysis include its observational design and wine-specific focus, rather than total alcohol intake. That constrains its ability to address broader alcohol-related cancer or health risks.”
There is room for further exploration in this area of study. More research into site-specific cancers and wine consumption will likely be helpful and more follow-up into the risk of skin cancer from white wine.
Cho noted that it is not entirely clear why they observed this result.
“One possibility is that heavy alcohol consumption might be linked to high-risk behaviors, such as sunburn, indoor tanning, or insufficient sunscreen use,” she explained. “But it’s still unclear why white wine appears to be the key factor. Our study suggests that more research is needed to better understand the potential mechanisms behind this.”
The authors note that a component of red wine is resveratrol and that some evidence supports its anticancer properties. Additionally, red wine has higher levels of resveratrol than white wine.
However, this meta-analysis did not show that red wine decreased cancer risk. Researchers acknowledge that this may be due to the rapid metabolism of resveratrol, leading to low levels of resveratrol in the body after consuming red wine, which might not yield beneficial concentrations.
Overall, the findings suggest that red wine might not be a better choice compared to white wine when it comes to cancer risk. Cho noted that this “study, which is one of the first of its kind, challenges the belief that red wine is inherently healthier than white wine.”
