People who drink a lot of coffee have a lower risk of getting cancer - researchers
Kyiv • UNN
The study found that people who drink more than 4 cups of coffee daily have a 17% lower risk of head and neck cancer. Tea consumption also affects risk, but the results are less clear.
Researchers have found that people who drink more than four cups of coffee a day are 17% less likely to get head and neck cancer, UNN reports, citing The Guardian.
Details
According to Cancer Research UK, there are about 12,800 new cases of head and neck cancer and about 4,100 related deaths in the UK each year.
The new study does not prove that tea and coffee alone protect against these types of cancer, but it does debunk certain facts that have been debated for years.
“Although there have been previous studies on coffee and tea consumption and cancer risk reduction, this study highlighted their different effects on different sub-locations of head and neck cancer, including the observation that even decaffeinated coffee had some positive effects,” said Dr. Yuan-Ching Amy Lee of the Huntsman Cancer Institute and University of Utah School of Medicine, senior author of the study.
The journal Cancer describes how the researchers analyzed data from 14 studies covering Europe, North and Latin America.
The study participants were given questionnaires in which they had to indicate their tea and coffee consumption habits. Nine studies included data on decaffeinated coffee consumption.
The researchers analyzed data from 9,548 people with head and neck cancer and 15,783 people without cancer.
Taking into account factors such as age, gender, daily number of cigarettes smoked, alcohol consumption, and fruit and vegetable consumption, it was found that people who drink more than four cups of caffeinated coffee a day have a 17% lower chance of developing head cancer. And neck cancer in general is observed in those who do not consume the drink. In particular, they found that such consumption was associated with a reduced chance of cancer of the oral cavity and oropharynx, the part of the throat located directly behind the mouth.
Drinking decaffeinated coffee was only associated with a reduced risk of oral cancer.
The situation with tea was less clear. The results show that drinking one cup a day or less is associated with an overall 9% reduction in the risk of head and neck cancer compared to abstinence, and in particular with a reduced risk of lower throat cancer.
But drinking more than one cup a day is a 38% higher chance of laryngeal cancer. The team suggests that drinking tea potentially increases the likelihood of gastroesophageal reflux disease, which is associated with a higher risk of laryngeal cancer.
The team notes that the study has limitations, including the fact that self-reports of tea and coffee consumption may not be accurate, and the type of tea or coffee was not taken into account.
Tom Sanders, professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King's College London, who was not involved in the study, also noted the shortcomings. In particular, he noted that people who drink a lot of coffee and tea may not be addicted to tobacco or alcohol. So this may explain why they are at a lower risk for cancer.
Recall
The incidence of prostate cancer will double to 2.9 million cases per year in the next 15 years worldwide. The annual mortality rate will increase by 85%, especially in less affluent countries.
