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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Drinking wine may reduce the risk of death and relapse among non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients, according to a new study.
"This conclusion is controversial, because excessive drinking has a negative social and health impact, and it is difficult to define what is moderate and what is excessive," Xuesong Han, study author and doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Public Health, was quoted as saying. "However, we are continually seeing a link between wine and positive outcomes in many cancers."
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The study is the first to examine the link among patients with the disease. Han and her colleagues analyzed data about 546 women with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
They found those who drank wine had a 76 percent five-year survival compared with 68 percent for non-wine drinkers. Further research found five-year, disease-free survival was 70 percent among those who drank wine compared with 65 percent among non-wine drinkers.
Researchers also looked at the effect of wine among those who drank for at least the previous 25 years before diagnosis. Patients who had been drinking wine for at least this long had a 25 to 35 percent reduced risk of death, relapse or secondary cancer.
Beer and liquor consumption did not show a benefit.
Authors say the findings would need to be replicated before any health recommendations are made.
Source: American Association for Cancer Research 100th Annual Meeting, 2009
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