A new study has found that resveratrol, a chemical found in grape skins and red wine, may protect against cancer, even though the ethyl alcohol found in wine, on the contrary, should increase the risk of some head and neck tumors, according to. net Scientists gained most of their knowledge about the relationship between alcohol and cancer while studying the rare disease Fanconi anemia.

This disease affects 1 in 350,000 children..

Fanconi anemia is characterized by the inability of the body to repair DNA cross-links when it is damaged.. Violation of DNA repair leads to the accumulation of dangerous genetic errors that are associated with a high risk of developing leukemia, as well as tumors of the head and neck..

In both Fanconi syndrome and alcohol-associated cancer, it is all controlled by a single substance - partially metabolized alcohol.. At the initial stage of alcohol detoxification, the body converts ethyl alcohol into acetaldehyde, after which it is converted into acetic acid using the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH).

This intermediate, acetaldehyde, is a potent carcinogen that cross-links DNA.. With Fanconi anemia, this dramatically increases the risk of tumors, because the body of patients cannot repair damage of this kind.. If a person does not have enough ALDH enzyme, then the risk of cancer will be even higher..

Red wine drinkers have 'lowest risk of alcohol-associated cancer'.

“When the body receives a dose of alcohol, it reacts with the formation of acetaldehyde. High doses of alcohol and the loss of the ALDH gene, which helps detoxify alcohol, plus the inability to repair DNA, is a cancer of the future. But when you look at the results of epidemiological studies of head and neck cancer, it turns out that the source of alcohol matters a lot.. The lowest incidence of cancer occurs in those who drink red wine. There is something in red wine that blocks this effect,” writes the author of the latest study, Dr. Robert Sclafani, a research fellow at the University of Colorado Cancer Center..

In the journal Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, where the scientists published their results, they started a discussion about the protective properties of red wine.. Dr. Sclafani believes that the more alcohol a person consumes, the more dangerous damage accumulates in his DNA, and the higher the likelihood of cancer.. But resveratrol, found in the skin of grapes, eliminates cells with severe DNA damage that can become cancerous..

" Your body has the ability to repair damage, but a large amount of alcohol causes damage that cannot be repaired.. This is why alcoholics are more likely to get head and neck cancer. Resveratrol fights such cells. If the cell's DNA is damaged, then resveratrol contributes to its destruction.. In other words, alcohol damages cells, and resveratrol kills such cells,” explains Sclafani..

However, the researcher warns readers that resveratrol is by no means a " He writes that after the treatment of head and neck tumors, there remains a high risk of cancer in the future, and this is an inevitable risk..

Going forward, Sclafani and colleagues plan to study resveratrol prophylactic treatment..

In 2013, researchers at the University of Missouri (MU) School of Medicine reported that resveratrol makes melanoma cells more sensitive to radiation therapy.. But then the authors of the work warned that they found it difficult to determine the exact amounts of resveratrol needed for such purposes..

medbe. en.