According to researchers from the University of Oxford women who have one alcoholic drink a day have a heightened risk of developing all types of cancer by 6% by the time they are 75.

Women even with the moderate amount of one drink a day stand a 12 % higher risk of developing breast cancer and 22% higher risk of cancer of the larynx. The researchers further added that the risk doubled for each type of cancer for each additional drink up to a maximum of three a day.

The study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute had data from the Million Women Study, which examined more than a million middle-aged women to find out how the amount of alcohol they drank related to their risk of getting different types of cancer.

In the study 1.28 million women were recruited when they attended breast cancer screening and followed for the next 7 to 8 years, to see if they were diagnosed with any type of cancer. The women filled in a questionnaire at the start of the study with details on their drinking and this was repeated 3 years later.

Factors like being on the contraceptive pill or HRT, whether they smoked or took exercise, and how much they weighed were all taken into account as these are also known to affect cancer.

Women who regularly drank the equivalent of 1 unit a day were seen to have an increased risk of getting seven types of cancer: breast, liver, rectum (part of the bowel), mouth, pharynx (a space at the back of the mouth), oesophagus (the tube that takes food from the mouth to the stomach) and larynx (voicebox) as compared to women who drank only 1 or 2 units of alcohol a week.

Dr Naomi Allen, cancer epidemiologist and lead author, said the study focused on women who consumed low to moderate levels of alcohol, which is defined as three drinks a day or fewer. She said, 'These findings suggest that even relatively low levels of drinking increase a woman's risk of developing cancer of the breast, liver and rectum, and in smokers, cancers of the mouth and throat.'

Breast cancer saw the most increased risk and for every extra daily unit of alcohol over 2 a week saw the risk increase by 1.1 per 100.

In the case of cancers of the mouth, oesophagus, pharynx and larynx an increase was only seen in women who also smoked. There was no increased risk of these cancers for women who drank alcohol but didn't smoke. The increased risks for rectum and liver cancer were marginal at an increased risk of 1 per 1000 and 0.7 per 1000 respectively.

The study was done by the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford. It was funded by Cancer Research UK, the UK Medical Research Council, and the NHS breast screening programme.