Research consistently shows that drinking alcoholic beverages -- beer, wine, and liquor -- increases a woman's risk of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. Alcohol can increase levels of estrogen and other hormones associated with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. Alcohol also may increase breast cancer risk by damaging DNA in cells.

Compared to women who don't drink at all, women who have one alcoholic drink per day have a small increase in risk. Women who have two to five drinks per day have about a 50% increase in breast cancer risk compared to women who don't drink any alcohol.

While only a few studies have been done on drinking alcohol and the risk of recurrence, the handful of results suggest that drinking three to four or more alcoholic beverages per week may increase the risk of breast cancer coming back, especially in women who are postmenopausal or overweight.

Steps you can take

If you want to do everything you can to lower your breast cancer risk, limiting how much alcohol you drink makes sense. You may choose to stop drinking alcohol completely. But if you enjoy alcoholic beverages and plan to continue drinking, try to have fewer than five alcoholic drinks per week.