Alcohol-attributable cancer deaths in the United States more than doubled between 1990 and 2023, rising from an estimated 11,361 deaths a year to 23,126, according to a study published September 2 in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas. The research, led by Dr. Chinmay Jani and colleagues at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, drew on more than three decades of Global Burden of Disease data and found that alcohol’s contribution to cancer mortality reaches well beyond liver cancer.
Which cancers are driving the increase?
The study found rising alcohol-attributable death rates across most cancer types, age groups, and regions of the country. Men and adults age 55 and older carried the largest share of the burden. Among younger adults, ages 20 to 54, colorectal cancer was the leading alcohol-attributable cancer death among men, while breast cancer ranked first among women. The researchers also reported wide geographic variation: Washington, D.C. had the highest alcohol-attributable cancer death rate in 2023, while Utah had the lowest.
The findings build on a body of research the International Agency for Research on Cancer has recognized since classifying alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen, a category that also includes tobacco and asbestos. Alcohol consumption is linked to cancers of the breast, colon and rectum, esophagus, liver, mouth, throat, and larynx.
Why hasn’t the U.S. warning label changed?
Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called in January 2025 for updating the health warning printed on alcoholic beverages to specifically mention cancer risk. That label’s wording, however, is set by the Alcoholic Beverage Labeling Act of 1988, and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau cannot revise it without congressional action. As of this study’s publication, no such legislation has advanced, leaving the current label, which warns of impaired driving and birth defects but not cancer, unchanged.
Separately, researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center have also tested how different warning language affects public understanding, finding that messages naming a specific cancer type resonated more strongly with consumers than generic references to “cancer risk.”
The study’s authors described alcohol as a modifiable risk factor, meaning that unlike many cancer risk factors, exposure to it can be reduced through individual and policy choices. Current U.S. dietary guidelines advise that if adults choose to drink, men limit intake to two drinks a day and women to one, though the World Health Organization has stated there is no level of alcohol consumption that is entirely free of health risk.
Sources: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, “U.S. Cancer Deaths Linked to Alcohol Have Doubled Since 1990, Study Finds” · The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, “Alcohol-attributable cancer mortality in the United States, 1990–2023” · Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, “U.S. Surgeon General Issues Warning on Alcohol and Cancer”
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