Coffee addicts rejoice - drinking your precious brew does not increase your risk of getting cancer, according to a major new Australian study.
Researchers from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer looked at data from 300,000 people and showed drinking coffee every day neither reduces nor increases cancer risk.
"We know that coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world, and there continue to be mixed messages about the role it plays in disease," said senior author Stuart MacGregor.
"We also know that a preference for coffee is heritable.
"Our two-pronged research looked at whether cancer rates differed among people with different levels of self-reported coffee consumption, and whether the same trend was seen when we replaced self-reported consumption with genetic predisposition towards coffee consumption.
We found there was no real relationship between how many cups of coffee a person had a day and if they developed any particular cancers.
- Associate Professor Stuart MacGregor
"We found there was no real relationship between how many cups of coffee a person had a day and if they developed any particular cancers.
"The study also ruled out a link between coffee intake and dying from the disease," said Associate Professor MacGregor.
Coffee contains a complex mixture of bioactive ingredients, including substances such as caffeine and kahweol, which have been shown to display anti-tumour effects in animal studies.
Its potential anti-cancer effect on humans has not been established however, with studies to date producing conflicting findings for overall cancer risk and for individual cancers such as breast and prostate cancers.
The QIMR Berghofer study used cancer data drawn from the UK Biobank cohort for more than 46,000 people who had been diagnosed with most invasive cancer types, including about 7,000 people who died from the disease.
The genetic and preference information from the people with cancer was compared to data from more than 270,000 others who had never been diagnosed with cancer.
QIMR Berghofer lead researcher, Jue-Sheng Ong, said the study also looked at some common individual cancers such as breast, ovarian, lung and prostate cancers and found drinking coffee did not increase or decrease their incidence.
"There was some inconclusive evidence about colorectal cancer, where those who reported drinking a lot of coffee had a slightly lower risk of developing cancer, but conversely examination of data from those people with a higher genetic predisposition to drink more coffee seemed to indicate a greater risk of developing the disease," Mr Ong said.
"The disparity in those findings would suggest more research is needed to clarify if there is any relationship between colorectal cancer and coffee."
Associate Professor MacGregor said the study had implications for public health messaging around the world.
"The health benefits of coffee have been argued for a long time, but this research shows simply changing your coffee consumption isn't an effective way of protecting yourself from cancer," he said.
The research was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
QUICK FACTS:
- Australian Bureau of Statistics Health Survey figures show 46 per cent of the Australian population consumed coffee (including coffee substitutes) in 2011-12.
- According to Food Standards Australia New Zealand there is no recognised health-based guidance value, such as an Acceptable Daily Intake, for caffeine.
- In an August 2018 statement, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said current science indicated that consuming coffee posed no significant risk of cancer.
- The UK Biobank cohort study is a population-based cohort study consisting of approximately half a million participants recruited across the UK from 2006 to 2010. The QIMR Berghofer analysis was restricted to 438 870 White British participants with adequate genetic and coffee consumption data.
HAVE YOU signed up to The Senior's e-newsletters? Register below to make sure you keep up to date with everything that's happening for seniors around the country.
.