How coffee drinkers benefit
2008-01-22 14:04
London - Caffeine appears to lower a
woman's chances of developing ovarian cancer, US researchers
said on Tuesday, while smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol
do not.
The benefit for caffeine drinkers also seemed strongest for
women who had never used oral contraceptives or postmenopausal
hormones, the researchers wrote in the journal Cancer.
"With regard to caffeine and caffeine-containing beverages,
we generally observed a lower risk of ovarian cancer with
increasing intake," Shelley Tworoger of Harvard Medical School
and colleagues wrote.
Worldwide there are more than an estimated 190 000 new cases
of ovarian cancer each year, a disease more common after age 50.
Women often have mild or no symptoms until the disease has
progressed.
Previous studies have linked caffeine consumption with
lowered cancer risk but the researchers said further work was
needed to determine the biological reasons driving the
protective benefits they found in ovarian cancer.
The team examined data taken from health questionnaires of
more than 121 000 women aged 30-35 as part of a Utah study.
The researchers found no significant link between current or
past smoking or drinking and overall ovarian cancer risk, though
cigarettes seemed to raise the likelihood of one rare form of
the disease.
Risk also appeared to decline the more total caffeine and
coffee a woman consumed, the study found. Decaffeinated coffee
had no apparent benefit.
"The possibility that caffeine may reduce ovarian cancer
risk, particularly for women who have not previously used
exogenous hormones, is intriguing and warrants further study,
including an evaluation of possible biological mechanisms," the
researchers wrote.
- Reuters