A study has revealed that a daily drink of one glass of wine significantly increases the chances of breast cancer among women, the Guardian reports.

The study was carried out by a team of researchers at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. They used data from two large US studies- the Nurses Health Study for women and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study for men. 

Earlier studies have linked the intake of alcohol to the risk for a number of cancers. However, the focus of the research has always been on heavy drinking.

The study, published by the British Medical Journal, defined one drink as containing 15g of alcohol, equivalent to 118ml glass of wine or a 355ml bottle of beer.

Under the study, the researchers studied the health of 88,084 women and 47,881 men for up to 30 years. The researchers evaluated the risk of total cancer as well as alcohol-related cancers.

The link between drinking moderate amounts of alcohol and breast cancer was earlier identified by the Oxford University-based Million Women Study.

According to NDTV, Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, said,

"This research confirms the results of previous studies showing that there is no such thing as a safe level of drinking when it comes to the risk of cancer."