Coffee and Cancer

Cancer is all too prevalent, and is of course a leading cause of death. My family is no exception.

One highlight I came across – from this umbrella review of "coffee consumption and health" – is that drinking coffee seems to lower cancer risk.

The umbrella review highlighted results from this meta-analysis of 40 cohort studies , that found that drinking coffee is associated with an 18% lower risk of (any) cancer.

(Note: this is 18% lower "relative risk", not lower "absolute risk".)

But not for all cancer types, unfortunately.

Drinking coffee is associated with lower risk of: melanoma, leukaemia, and prostate, endometrial, oral, non-melanoma skin, liver, and lung cancers.

(A caveat: among smokers, those who drink more coffee seem to have higher mortality risks.)

But (sadly) there is no association between coffee consumption and: lymphoma, glioma, or gastric, colorectal, colon, rectal, ovarian, thyroid, breast, pancreatic, oesophageal, and laryngeal cancers.

Still – plus points for coffee!