Coffee may prevent breast cancer

[KenNiemann]

J Nutr. 2006 Jan;136(1):166-71.


Consumption of coffee, but not black tea, is associated with decreased risk of premenopausal breast cancer.

Baker JA, Beehler GP, Sawant AC, Jayaprakash V, McCann SE, Moysich KB.

Department of Epidemiology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, USA.

Caffeine has been suggested as a possible risk factor for breast cancer, potentially through its effect of facilitating the development of benign breast disease. However, coffee and tea also contain polyphenols, which exhibit anticarcinogenic properties. A hospital-based, case-control study was conducted to evaluate the role of coffee, decaffeinated coffee, and black tea in breast cancer etiology. Study participants included 1932 cases with primary, incident breast cancer and 1895 hospital controls with nonneoplastic conditions. All participants completed a comprehensive epidemiological questionnaire. Among premenopausal women, consumption of regular coffee was associated with linear declines in breast cancer risk (P for trend = 0.03); consumers of >or=4 cups/d experienced a 40% risk reduction (odds ratio = 0.62, 95% CI 0.39-0.98). No clear associations between intake of black tea or decaffeinated coffee and breast cancer risk were noted among premenopausal women, although black tea was associated with a protective effect unique to a subsample of cases with lobular histology. Among postmenopausal women, breast cancer risk was not associated with consumption of coffee, tea, or decaffeinated coffee. Results among postmenopausal women did not differ by histologic subtype. Our findings support a protective effect of coffee intake on premenopausal, but not postmenopausal breast cancer risk. Further studies are warranted to confirm these findings.

PMID: 16365077 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[KenNiemann]

Coffee May Not Reduce Colorectal Cancer Risk
(Reuters Health) - Coffee consumption does not reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, according to an analysis of two large, prospective studies published in the April issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Most previous research that found coffee to have protective effects were case-control studies, "but prospective studies, most of them involving small numbers of cases, have not supported such a relation," Dr. Susanna C. Larsson, of Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and colleagues write.

The researchers used data from two population-based cohort studies to prospectively examine the association between coffee consumption and the risk of colorectal cancer. Included in the analysis were 61,433 women in the Swedish Mammography Cohort and 45,306 men in the Cohort of Swedish Men. Food frequency questionnaires were used to collect data on coffee consumption between 1987 to 1990 for women, and in 1997 for men.

A total of 1279 incident cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed during 1,240,597 person-years of follow-up. No association was observed between coffee consumption and the risk of colorectal cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer in either sex. The combined multivariate rate ratio for colorectal cancer for each additional cup of coffee per day was 1.00.

"There were no significant associations of coffee consumption with colorectal cancer risk within strata of colorectal cancer risk factors, including age, smoking, body mass index, physical activity, aspirin use, and (among women) postmenopausal hormone use," Dr. Larsson and colleagues write.

"None of the tests for statistical interaction between coffee consumption and these variables produced significant results in either cohort."

Am J Epidemiol 2006;163:638-644.

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