Wine May Help in Breast Cancer Treatment

When a person is going through radiation therapy for cancer treatment, a nasty side effect is often skin toxicity. This can include burns, dry cracking skin, or other uncomfortable skin issues. If the skin toxicity remains fairly mild, then there may not be a problem. But, if the problems get bad, they can have a severe impact on the quality of life and could even bring a woman to the point that she must discontinue treatment.

Interestingly, researchers in Italy discovered that a glass of wine every day could actually help minimize the skin toxicity of radiotherapy. They examined 348 women who were undergoing radiotherapy for breast cancer and reviewed whether they drank wine during treatment and, if so, how much. This was then compared with the results of which women developed skin toxicity.

What the researchers found was that almost 14% of women who had one glass of wine per day experienced skin toxicity, compared with just over 38% of women who didn’t drink wine. The study findings were published in the August issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics.

While these findings are early and need to be proven further, if holding off severe side effects is as simple as having a glass of wine every night, perhaps researchers will be able to develop a medication that could mimic the wine’s effects. The study didn’t mention if the researchers looked at what type of wine (red or white) and if this made a difference.

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