Drinking Tea and Coffee Linked To Lower Risk of Head and Neck Cancer in Study

Research finds people who have more than four coffees a day have 17% lower chance of head and neck cancers. From a report: If the only thing getting you through a mountain of present-wrapping is a mug of tea or coffee, be of good cheer. Researchers have found people who consume those drinks have a slightly lower risk of head and neck cancers. There are about 12,800 new head and neck cancer cases and about 4,100 related deaths in the UK every year, according to Cancer Research UK.

The new study does not prove that tea and coffee are themselves protective against such cancers, but experts say the findings help to shed light on what has been a much debated area with inconsistent results. "While there has been prior research on coffee and tea consumption and reduced risk of cancer, this study highlighted their varying effects with different sub-sites of head and neck cancer including the observation that even decaffeinated coffee had some positive impact," said Dr Yuan-Chin Amy Lee of Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah School of Medicine, the senior author of the study.

Writing in the journal Cancer, the team report how they analysed data from 14 studies that covered Europe, North America and Latin America. [...] After taking into account factors such as age, sex, daily number of cigarettes smoked, alcohol consumption and fruit and vegetable consumption, the researchers found that people who drink more than four cups of caffeinated coffee a day have a 17% lower chance of developing head and neck cancers overall compared with those who do not drink the beverage. Specifically they found such consumption was associated with reduced odds of cancers of the oral cavity and the oropharynx -- part of the throat just behind the mouth.