Drinking alcohol even in moderation — such as a large glass of wine or a pint of beer a day — can increase the risk of bowel cancer by 10 per cent, a Europe-wide study has found. And drinking to two pints a day or about two large glasses of wine can increase the risk by up to a quarter.

About 35,000 cases of bowel cancer are diagnosed in Britain each year, with the disease killing 16,100 people a year. On average it is estimated to strike one in 20 men and one in 18 women.

The study questioned almost 480,000 people across ten European countries about their drinking habits as part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition, funded by Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and other European agencies.

The findings, published online yesterday by the International Journal of Cancer, found that people who drank 15 grams of alcohol a day (about two units) had about a 10 per cent increased risk of the disease. Those who drank more than 30 grams of alcohol (three to four units) increased their risk by about 25 per cent.

In Britain, one unit equates to eight grams of pure alcohol, but the number of units a drink contains depends on how strong and large the measure is.All the participants in the study were followed up for a six years. During that period 1,833 people developed bowel cancer.

Tim Key, deputy director of the cancer epidemiology unit in Oxford, said: “The increase in risk is not large but it is important that people understand they can reduce their risk of a number of different cancers — including bowel cancer — by cutting down on alcohol.“

Lesley Walker, of Cancer Research UK, said: “There is a lot of confusion over safe levels of drinking. This partly arises over the increasing strength of some wines and beers and the fact that many pubs offer a large glass of wine that is actually equivalent to one third of a bottle . . . Women should drink less than two units a day and men less than three. By far the biggest risk for life-threatening diseases is the combination of smoking with alcohol.”

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