Parental alcohol use linked to increased cancer risk in children, Texas A&M researchers find

New research from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has discovered that parents who chronically abuse alcohol can pass along adverse effects that increase their children’s susceptibility to cancer — especially in the liver.

Researchers working in the lab of Dr. Michael Golding have previously demonstrated that paternal drinking habits before conception can have a negative effect on fetal development, even up to three months after ceasing to drink. They have also shown that alcohol use from either mothers or fathers can result in early aging symptoms in children, even when drinking at the legal limit. 

The latest findings were detailed in a recent article published in Aging and Disease.

“Through our research, we’ve learned that parental drinking causes problems in their offspring’s mitochondria,” said Golding, a professor in the VMBS’ Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology. “If you think of the mitochondria like a battery, parental drinking causes the ‘battery’ to have unusually low voltage. Because the mitochondria aren’t working correctly, this causes inflammation, and too much inflammation makes you susceptible to cancer development.

According to Golding, the two tissues in the body with the highest number of mitochondria are the brain and liver.

“What we found in this study is that if an individual’s parents chronically abused alcohol, this increases their susceptibility to liver cancer, and if they are exposed to a carcinogen, they are more likely to develop tumors than individuals whose parents did not drink,” he said.

“Additionally, the effects are worse if both parents drank than if it was only mom or dad,” he said.

Exposure to things that increase inflammation — like alcohol, processed foods and high amounts of sugar — can happen both during childhood and later into adulthood, potentially acting as a trigger for tumor development earlier than normal. 

This new finding is especially important for people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), a condition caused by parental alcohol consumption and resulting in abnormal facial features, low birth weight and/or height, attention and hyperactivity issues, and poor coordination.

“If someone has FASD, they should be given special consideration for things like cancer screenings,” Golding said. “If you would normally screen people in their 50s, consider screening someone with FASD in their 40s to account for their increased susceptibility.

“It’s also important for children and adults with FASD to avoid drinking alcohol, eating excessive amounts of processed foods, and avoid other potential triggers for inflammation, since they have a higher risk of developing cancer,” he said.

Parental Alcohol Use And Fetal Development

This most recent finding is part of a larger project from Golding’s lab to understand the impact of parental drinking habits on fetal development, especially with regard to FASD.

Golding has previously published research confirming that a father’s drinking habits are just as important for fetal health as the mother’s, despite the fact that the official diagnosis for FASD focuses entirely on confirming maternal drinking.

“For years, there’s really been no consideration of male alcohol use whatsoever,” Golding said. “Within the last five to eight years, we’ve started to notice that there are certain conditions where there’s a very strong paternal influence when it comes to alcohol exposure and fetal development.”

In one recent study, Golding’s lab discovered that a father’s drinking habits can affect his sperm up to three months after quitting alcohol use, meaning that it takes much longer than previously thought for the sperm to return to normal.

In another, his lab found that alcohol abuse from either parent can cause children with FASD — especially males — to develop early aging symptoms, including high cholesterol, heart problems, arthritis and early onset dementia. 

“Historically in pediatric medicine, scientists and doctors have never really paid attention to dads because it’s always been assumed that the mother’s health history is more relevant to a child’s health,” Golding said. “Recent research is showing that the health of both parents matters, and that the father’s health may even be a better predictor of certain health outcomes.”

By Courtney Price, Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences