A new study has reported that 3.5% of cancer deaths in the United States can be directly linked to alcohol use.

This means that every year close to 20,000 Americans died from alcohol-enhanced cancers.

The study also found a significant decrease in life expectancy for patients who developed an alcohol related cancer. The average loss of years of life for someone inflicted was 18 years old, meaning a man who dies from throat cancer at age 45 would have lived to age 63 if it was not for the cancer.

Timothy Naimi, a researcher at Boston University Medical Center and co-author of the report, said that people need to know the impact of alcohol on cancer deaths.

“Alcohol is a known cancer-causing agent in humans, but it has been severely overlooked as a preventable cause of cancer deaths,” Naimi told Fox News.

The report says that men are more likely to get alcohol-related cancers in their upper airway (mouth, throat) and the esophagus while women are more likely to develop breast cancer. In 2009, 15% of breast cancer deaths were linked to alcohol.