Drinking alcohol may be related to cancer, study finds, but there are many unknowns By Kristen Rogers, CNN Over 4% of all new cancer cases in 2020 were attributable to alcohol consumption, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal The Lancet Oncology. The researchers analyzed available data on population-level alcohol use in 2010 and on cancer cases in 2020. They assumed a 10-year period between alcohol consumption and the appearance of cancer, since the types of cancer included in the study — lip and oral cavity cancer, laryngeal cancer and breast cancer (among females) — have lengthy development periods and previous evidence of a causal relationship with alcohol consumption.