|
Last Updated: Dec 27th, 2006 - 19:07:47 |
A new epidemiological study conducted in Japan confirmed a previous finding that drinking coffee may lower the risk of death from liver cancer.
The Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk involved 46,399 male adults and 64,289 female adults aged 40 to 79 years. The subjects were grouped based on their coffee consumption. One group included those who drank one or more cups a day, one group include those who drank less than one cup a day and the other group consumed no coffee.
Researchers of the study employed Cox proportional hazards model by SAS to obtain the hazard ratio of hepatocellular carcinoma mortality for each group. Factors also considered in the study included age, gender, educational status history and diabetes and liver diseases, smoking habits and alcohol consumption.
When all factors were taken into consideration, the researchers found that the hazard ratio of hepatocellurlar carcinoma mortality for those who drank one or more cups a day versus those who did not drink coffee was 0.50. The hazard ratio for those who drank less than one cup a day versus those who did not drink coffee was 0.83.
The results confirmed an inverse association between coffee consumption and hepatocellular carcinoma mortality. One earlier study reported in April 2005 by U. Gelatti and colleagues in Italy found the inverse association between coffee drinking and heptatocellular carcinoma.
The previous Italian study, published in the journal of Hepatology, which involved 250 patients with heptatocellular carcinoma and 500 patients admitted to hospitals for non-liver associated diseases, reported the results similar to that found in the current Japanese study. Both studies came to an agreement that more coffee consumption led to a better outcome. This held true at least for up to 4 or 5 cups of coffee a day.
Gelatti and colleagues suggested that coffee drinking can help reduce the liver cancer risk no matter if the subjects are alcohol drinkers or carriers of hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus, all of which can be major factors leading to hepatocellurlar carcinoma.
Previous studies suggested that coffee drinking may also lower the risk of oral and pharyngeal, oesophageal and colorectal cancers.
The current Japanese study was conducted by Y. Kurozawa and colleagues at the Tottori University in Yonago, Japan. The results were published online August 9, 2005 on the web site of British Journal of cancer.
© 2004-2005 by foodconsumer.org unless otherwise specified
Top of Page
