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2007-8-30 13:47:52 |
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Wednesday August 1, 2007 (Foodconsumer.org) -- Regularly drinking coffee may drastically cut risk of colon cancer in women, but not in men, a Japanese study suggests, adding to growing, yet weak evidence that drinking coffee may protect against a range of cancers such as skin and liver cancer. Researchers found that women who drank three cups or more of coffee a day were 56 percent less likely to have colon cancer. The association was still significant even after possible cofounders were considered. But no association was found between coffee drinking and rectum cancer risk even in women, according to the study, which is scheduled to be printed in the September 15 2007 issue of International Journal of Cancer. For men, there was no such correlation between coffee drinking and risk of colorectal cancer including colon cancer and rectum cancer. Lee KJ at National Cancer Center, Tokyo, Japan and colleagues conducted the analysis based on data from a large population-based cohort study involving 46,000 men and 50,000 women. The results did not reveal any causal relationship between drinking coffee and colorectal cancer risk, meaning that drinking coffee does not guarantee a decrease in the risk of colorectal cancer, said a scientist affiliated with foodconsumer.org. However, if anything in coffee does have an effect against colorectal cancer, then it may not be caffeine as the researchers found drinking green tea was not linked to reduced risk of colorectal cancer. Similar studies have been performed earlier, but results are inconsistent. One study found that "consumption of caffeinated coffee, tea with caffeine, or caffeine was not associated with incidence of colon of rectal cancer, whereas regular consumption of decaffeinated coffee was associated with a reduced incidence of rectal cancer." That study conducted by Michels KB at Brigham and WomenĄŻs Hospital and Harvard Medical School and colleagues was based on data from the Nurses' Health Study (women) and the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study (men). The results were published in the February 16, 2005 issue of Journal of National Cancer Institute. A similar Japanese prospective cohort study involving a fairly large population of 23,000 men and 25,000 women aged 40 to 64 years also negated any association between coffee consumption and incidence of either proximal or distal colon cancer. Naganuma T at Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan and colleagues reported their findings in the April 1, 2007 issue of International Journal of Cancer. ### Copyright 2007 foodconsumer.org All rights reserved. Foodconsumer.org publishes daily news and reports on food and diet, some of which are not available from the mainstream news media. This article can be used by individuals and organizations for not-for-profit purposes without prior express permission from foodconsumer.org on condition that this article including the author and this copyright note should be used in entirety without alteration. |
