Coffee drinking may halve risk of oral cancer
- Details
- Published: Friday, 28 December 2012 09:31
- Written by News Editor
- Hits: 2962
Lead author Janet Hildebrand and colleagues from the American Cancer Society (ACS) in Atlanta, Georgia, write about their findings in a paper published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Previous epidemiological studies have suggested coffee drinking is linked to a reduced risk for mouth and throat cancer. It has also been suggested that it may not be the caffeine in coffee, but the fact it is rich in antioxidants, polyphenols, and other compounds, that help prevent or slow the development of cancer.
For their study, Hildebrand and colleagues used data from the Cancer Prevention Study II, a prospective US cohort study that the ACS started in 1982. That study gathered a wealth of lifestyle and health information on 968,432 men and women, including their tea and coffee consumption. When they enrolled on the study, none of the participants had cancer, but over the 26 years of follow up, 868 died from oral/pharyngeal cancer.
When they analyzed the tea and coffee consumption in relation to deaths from oral/pharyngeal cancer, the researchers found those participants who reported drinking more than 4 cups of caffeinated coffee a day had a 49% lower risk of death from oral/pharyngeal cancer compared to those who reported not drinking coffee at all or only an occasional cup.
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report