Overall, researchers have arrived at a few conclusions regarding coffee’s impact on cancer. In some cases, it doesn’t appear that coffee is any sort of risk factor for cancer. And, in one case, for a quite lethal cancer, it appears that coffee just might give you some protection.
Here are the overall findings from two separate studies:
— There is a weak association between coffee drinking and bladder cancer
— Most studies do not support the association between coffee drinking and pancreatic cancer
— Coffee may have a protective effect on colorectal cancer
— Coffee drinking is associated with a reduced risk of liver, kidney and, to a lesser extent, premenopausal breast and colorectal cancers
— Coffee drinking is not related to prostate, pancreas or ovarian cancers
— Coffee consumption could reduce death due to liver cancer
Those are some very interesting observations. One in particular deserves a closer look. And that is the link regarding the very dangerous colorectal cancer. There are mixed results between coffee and colon cancer. In one study, adults who drank two or more cups of decaffeinated coffee a day had a 48% reduced risk of rectal cancer, as compared to those who never drank decaffeinated coffee. But drinking caffeinated coffee and tea had no protective effects on colorectal cancers.
A recent meta-analysis involving 646,848 individuals in 12 studies of the highest quality found that there was a slight protective effect with coffee against colon cancer. This was stronger in studies that controlled for smoking and alcohol and in studies with shorter follow-up times.
There is exciting preliminary evidence that drinking coffee may reduce the risk of the following cancers as well: oral, pharyngeal, and esophageal cancers; and premenopausal breast cancer.