Death and relapse rates were lower among patients with non-Hodgkins lymphoma who drank wine than those who did not, according to researchers who presented their findings at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Researcher Xuesong Han of the Yale School of Public Health and colleagues studied 546 women with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a type of cancer of the lymph system, and found that wine drinkers had a 76-percent chance of surviving five years, compared to 68 percent for nondrinkers. Five-year disease-free survival was 70 percent among wine drinkers and 65 percent among nondrinkers.

Moreover, patients who had consumed wine for 25 years or longer prior to being diagnosed with cancer enjoyed a 25-35 percent reduction in their risk of death, relapse, or secondary cancer, the researchers found.

No similar correlation was found for beer or liquor consumption.

"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," said Han. "However, we are continually seeing a link between wine and positive outcomes in many cancers."