A study by leading cancer experts in Great Britain found that alcohol is linked to 2,000 cases of breast cancer in Britain every year. Women who drink just one alcoholic drink a day increase their breast-cancer risk by 6 percent, while those who have five drinks a day increase their risk 30 percent, researchers said.

On the other hand, the researchers found no significant link between the breast-cancer rates of non-drinking female smokers and non-smokers.

Since many women both drink and smoke, the researchers analyzed over 50 studies involving more than 23,000 women to separate the effects of tobacco and alcohol.

"For the first time, we have undertaken a study large enough and detailed enough to look at the separate effects of tobacco and alcohol reliably. When we did this we found that drinking, but not smoking, increases the risk of breast cancer," said Sir Richard Doll of Oxford University, one of the authors of the study.

The study's findings are published in the Nov. 18 issue of the British Journal of Cancer.

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