Alcohol and cancer

Hi and welcome to the community though sorry to hear about your brother.

There is some information around about alcohol and cancer treatments that might be helpful and he should definitely talk to the oncology team about this.

There are a few posts from people in similar positions but nothing very recent https://community.macmillan.org.uk/search?q=alcoholic#serpsort=date%20desc

Hope some of that helps.

<<hugs>>

Steve

Thanks Steve

Hi Chocolate

I'm really sorry for your brother's horrible news and for how you and your family must be feeling. 

My mum was diagnosed with bladder cancer that has spread to the kidney and lung in September last year. She was given 12-15 months but so far is responding to chemo and the scans have been looking good. Both my parents are dependent drinkers, and she's still drinking her red wine but I think this might have lessened a bit from over a bottle a day now! 

I'm not saying the alcohol caused the cancer, but I think the daily drinking may well have led to missing of symptoms/minimising them and just a general lack of self-care and denial - before it was too late really.

I would say that if he's an alcoholic, then there's not really anything you can do to make him change. That absolutely has to come from him, existential crisis or not. I used to go to Al-anon, the support group for families of alcoholics which was really helpful in accepting the harsh reality that you can't change them and looking at my own 'fixing' and other issues that can come from living with addicts. 

I've been trying to get back there but life keeps getting in the way at the moment. 

Best of luck to you and your family