Regular Coffee Consumption Associated With Reduced Risk of Advanced Prostate Cancer


While it is too early for physicians to start advising their male patients to take up the habit of regular coffee drinking, data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference revealed a strong inverse association between coffee consumption and the risk of lethal and advanced prostate cancers.


Coffee has effects on insulin and glucose metabolism as well as sex hormone levels. Each play a role in prostate cancer leading researchers to investigate if there may be an association between coffee and prostate cancer.

In a prospective study conducted at Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, a team of researchers found that men who drank the most coffee had a 60 percent lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer than men who did not drink any coffee. The team specifically looked at different types of prostate cancer, such as advanced vs. localized cancers or high-grade vs. low-grade cancers.

Caffeine is actually not the key factor in this association, according to the researchers. They are unsure which components of the beverage are most important; Coffee contains many biologically-active compounds including antioxidants and minerals.

Using the Health Professionals' Follow-Up Study, the researchers documented the regular and decaffeinated coffee intake of nearly 50,000 men every four years from 1986 to 2006; 4,975 of these men developed prostate cancer over that time. They also examined the cross-sectional association between coffee consumption and levels of circulating hormones in blood samples collected from a subset of men in the cohort.

"Very few lifestyle factors have been consistently associated with prostate cancer risk, especially with risk of aggressive disease, so it would be very important if this association is confirmed in other studies. Our results do suggest there is no reason to stop drinking coffee out of any concern about prostate cancer." concluded the researchers.

This association might also help understand the biology of prostate cancer and possible chemo-prevention measures.


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