Why Addressing Alcohol Is Key For A People-Centred Approach to Cancer Care
Cancer prevention and care can often feel technical, even bureaucratic. But it’s personal, probably for all of us.
That’s why I welcome and support efforts to place people, their needs, fears, hopes, at the center of care. This approach facilitates new ways of making a difference in the lives of people, their families, and communities.
A people-centred approach to cancer care emphasizes personalized, holistic, and equitable healthcare that fully integrates each individual’s unique needs. When considering alcohol’s role in cancer, this approach becomes crucial in several ways:
1. Alcohol as a Barrier to a People-Centred Cancer Care Approach
Alcohol causes cancer (at least seven types, including breast, liver, and colorectal cancer), yet public awareness is low due to alcohol industry practices that deliberately seek to keep people and healthcare professionals in the dark.
Evidence shows that Big Alcohol is doing everything they can to keep people in the dark about the direct link between their products and cancer – from muddying the science to propagating myths about alcohol’s effects, such as pink- and health-washing.
For instance, the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs – one of the top journals in the international substance use field – published a series of groundbreaking research papers into alcohol labelling effects. They also expose Big Alcohol interference and legal threats to shut down some of the studies and to distort and deny the data.

Public awareness is also low because of the persisting lack of clear and evidence-based public health messaging.
Many people diagnosed with cancer are unaware that alcohol played a role in their disease, making it harder for them to engage in informed decision-making about their health, their care needs, and their efforts to beat cancer.
A people-centred approach to cancer care must prioritize transparency, ensuring people, healthcare professionals, and politicians have access to accurate, science-based information about alcohol’s cancer risks.
For example, three science-based recommendations for enhancing the public’s (people, healthcare professionals, politicians) recognition of the direct link between alcohol and cancer – outlined in the landmark report “Alcohol and Cancer” – are:
- Compulsory and highly visible health warnings containing the clear message that alcohol causes cancer on all alcohol containers.
- National low risk alcohol use guidelines incorporate the science about the cancer risks from already low volume alcohol consumption.
- Rates of alcohol caused cancers are regularly assessed and publicly reported each year globally and in countries around the world. Public health campaigns on the topic of alcohol and cancer play a key role in a people-centered approach to cancer prevention and care.
2. Alcohol Worsens Cancer Treatment and Recovery
Alcohol complicates cancer treatment by weakening immune responses, interfering with medications, and delaying healing.
People undergoing cancer care may not receive adequate guidance on quitting or reducing alcohol consumption, even though quitting or reducing alcohol use could improve treatment outcomes.
Integrating alcohol awareness into cancer care can empower patients and their families with knowledge that supports their recovery and long-term health.
For example, one science-based recommendation for raising awareness – outlined in the landmark report “Alcohol and Cancer”:
- Medical practitioners routinely advise their patients about the need to reduce cancer risks by limiting alcohol consumption.
The researchers wrote:
… information about alcohol and health is a responsibility for medical practitioners. Medical associations have high credibility and are important voices in public discussions and can use this to disseminate new evidence in their society.
At the individual level, the responsibility for practitioners is to provide advice to their patients.”
Sven Andréasson, Tanya Chikritzhs, Frida Dangardt, Harold Holder, Timothy Naimi, Tim Stockwell
3. Health Inequities: Alcohol-Driven Cancers Affect Vulnerable Populations Most
Cancer caused by alcohol disproportionately affect low-income communities, where alcohol is often more available, affordable and even more aggressively marketed.
Many health systems focus on treatment rather than prevention, leaving those at the highest risk – especially in vulnerable and marginalized communities – without adequate support to reduce alcohol exposure.
A people-centred cancer care system would address these inequities by advocating for evidence-based, ambitious alcohol policy solutions, such as alcohol taxation and protecting people from alcohol marketing, to create healthier environments.
4. Integrating Alcohol Policy into a Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Care Strategy
A people-centred system should not only treat cancer but prevent it in the first place by creating environments that prevent and reduce the commercial determinants of cancer, including alcohol industry manufactured risk factors.
Policy solutions such as higher alcohol taxes, common sense limits on alcohol’s presence in our communities, and clear warning labels are population-wide interventions that align with a people-centred approach.
World class researchers established:
On the aggregate level, the most effec- tive way to reduce alcohol consumption is to reduce both the economic and physical availability of alcohol. In a hierarchy of effective measures, the price instrument comes highest, whether through a system of minimum prices and/or through in- creased alcohol taxation. At the next level come restrictions on physical availability.”
Sven Andréasson, Tanya Chikritzhs, Frida Dangardt, Harold Holder, Timothy Naimi, Tim Stockwell
Effective prevention is a combination of awareness raising and availability reduction, according to science. One way, among others, to increase public recognition of the role alcohol plays in cancer cases and deaths is to include warning messages on alcohol containers, in the same manner as is done with tobacco.
By addressing alcohol’s role in cancer at the systemic level, healthcare systems can better serve individuals and their families, while promoting broader community health.
A Truly People-Centred Approach Must Confront Alcohol’s Role in Cancer
A people-centred approach to cancer care cannot ignore the systemic drivers of preventable cancers, and alcohol is a major yet overlooked cause. Integrating cancer prevention, public awareness, equitable healthcare access, and policy change into a comprehensive cancer strategy is essential to fully meeting individuals’ needs while protecting future generations from alcohol-driven cancers.