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Reduces risk of cancer

Consumption of coffee and tea can lower the risks of developing head and neck cancer, including cancers of the mouth and throat, claimed a study on Monday.

Head & neck cancer

Head and neck cancer is the seventh most common cancer worldwide, and rates are rising in low- and middle-income countries.

How many cups?

The findings, based on an analysis of data from 14 studies, showed that compared with non-coffee-drinkers, individuals who drank more than 4 cups of caffeinated coffee daily had 17 per cent lower odds of having head and neck cancer overall. It also led to a 30 per cent lower risk of having cancer of the oral cavity, and 22 per cent lower odds of having throat cancer.

Drinking 3-4 cups of caffeinated coffee was linked with a 41 per cent lower risk of having hypopharyngeal cancer -- a type of cancer at the bottom of the throat), revealed the study published in the peer-reviewed CANCER journal.

Complex habits
“While there has been prior research on coffee and tea consumption and reduced risk of cancer, this study highlighted their varying effects with different subsites of head and neck cancer, including the observation that even decaffeinated coffee had some positive impact,” said senior author Yuan-Chin Amy Lee, from Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah School of Medicine.

“Coffee and tea habits are fairly complex, and these findings support the need for more data and further studies around the impact that coffee and tea can have on reducing cancer risk.”

The team examined data from 14 studies by different scientists and pooled information on 9,548 patients with head and neck cancer.