Cancer Prevention Action Week 2025
Alcohol and cancer… let’s talk.
Our Cancer Prevention Action Week 2025 campaign is highlighting the links between alcohol and cancer.
Every year, World Cancer Research Fund holds Cancer Prevention Action Week (CPAW), which focuses on empowering the public to reduce their risk of preventable cancers.
Our next CPAW, 17-23 February 2025, will focus on alcohol and cancer.
Alcohol and cancer: let’s talk
Too many people don’t know that drinking any amount of alcohol increases the risk of at least 7 types of cancer. This year we’re encouraging people to talk about alcohol and cancer to start building higher awareness not only among the public but also in government. We want to start a conversation that will help people lead longer, healthier lives.
There is strong evidence that all types of alcoholic drink can increase the risk of at least 7 cancers:
- breast
- bowel
- head and neck
- oesophageal
- liver
- stomach
Alcoholic drinks are also high in calories and often high in sugar, increasing your risk of gaining weight. Living with overweight or obesity increases our risk of at least 13 different types of cancer.
Cutting back on alcohol – or, ideally, stopping entirely – is always a good idea for our health. After all, it’s one of our scientifically backed and fully evidenced Cancer Prevention Recommendations. There’s never been a better time to cut back, with many alternatives to alcohol widely available. More people are taking up the ‘sober curious’ lifestyle and reaping its health benefits.
Consider how you can cut back in your own life and set an encouraging example for others to follow. Why not replace a drink with a donation to World Cancer Research Fund as a reminder of why it’s so important to be aware of how much, when, and why you drink?
What role do governments play?
Making a personal choice to cut back is only one part of Cancer Prevention Action Week. We also need to put pressure on governments to develop a new alcohol strategy, which should include:
- Better labels on alcoholic drinks, with prominent health warnings.
- Taxes and prices, such as a minimum price per unit, to deter people from drinking.
- Tighter regulation of where, when and how alcohol is marketed.
These would help create a healthier environment for us to all live in, and minimise the harms caused by alcohol. Everyone deserves to live in a society where they can make their own informed choices about their health.
With our stats showing that 40% of people remain unaware that alcohol increases the risk of cancer, that just isn’t the case yet.
