Coffee, tea and cancer

A new study has examined whether regular coffee or tea consumption in any way influences a person’s likelihood of developing cancer.

The study was carried out by a team led by Timothy Nguyen, from the Fielding School of Public Health, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States.

This research was based on a reanalysis of data from more than a dozen studies.

The results of the new research indicate that regular coffee or tea consumption carries a lower risk of developing head and neck cancer, including cancers of the mouth and throat.

Head and neck cancer is the seventh most common cancer worldwide, and its rates are increasing in low- and middle-income countries. Numerous studies have evaluated whether coffee or tea consumption is related to head and neck cancer, with conflicting results.

To learn more, researchers examined data from 14 studies conducted by different scientists associated with the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium, a collaboration of research groups from around the world.

The study subjects filled out questionnaires about their previous consumption of caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated coffee and tea, in cups per day, per week, per month and per year.

A cup of coffee. (Photo: Amazings/NCYT)

When researchers pooled information from 9,548 patients with head and neck cancer and 15,783 people without cancer, they found that compared to non-coffee consumers, individuals who drank more than 4 cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 17 % less likely to suffer from head and neck cancer overall, 30% less likely to suffer from oral cavity cancer and 22% less likely to suffer from throat cancer. Drinking 3 to 4 cups of caffeinated coffee was associated with a 41% lower risk of hypopharyngeal cancer (a type of cancer in the lower part of the throat).

Drinking decaffeinated coffee was associated with a 25% lower chance of oral cavity cancer.

Drinking tea was linked to a 29% lower chance of hypopharyngeal cancer. Likewise, drinking one cup or less of tea per day was associated with a 9% lower risk of head and neck cancer overall and a 27% lower risk of hypopharyngeal cancer, but drinking more than one cup was associated with a 38% lower risk of more likely to suffer from laryngeal cancer.

“Although research has already been done on coffee and tea consumption and cancer risk reduction, this study has highlighted their variable effects on different subtypes of head and neck cancer, including the observation that even decaffeinated coffee “It has some positive effect,” said Yuan-Chin Amy Lee, from the University of Utah in the United States and a member of the research team. “Coffee and tea drinking habits are quite complex, and these findings support the need for more data collection and additional studies into the impact coffee and tea may have on cancer risk reduction.”

The study is titled “Coffee and Tea Consumption and the Risk of Head and Neck Cancer: An Updated Pooled Analysis in the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium.” And it has been published in the academic journal Cancer. (Fountain: NCYT by Amazings)