News story: Coffee may lower some breast cancer risks

Kathy · Post by **Kathy** » 1/5/2006, 7:48 am

Maybe my daily coffee habit has an upside? Although, we can't ignore all the downsides of high caffeine consumption either....

Coffee may lower some breast cancer risks
Updated Wed. Jan. 4 2006 10:26 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A new study has found that caffeinated coffee may significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer in women with a particular type of gene mutation.

"If we can reduce a little bit the risk of breast cancer that is great," Dr. Parviz Ghadirian, a Montreal epidemioligist, told CTV News.

The study investigated the relationship between coffee consumption and breast cancer and was led by University of Toronto professor Steven A. Narod. It was published in the January edition of the International Journal of Cancer.

"Those women who drank six or more cups of coffee a day on average had about a 75 per cent reduction in the risk of breast cancer," Narod said.

The study looked at women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations, and found those who drank coffee had less risk of developing breast cancer than those who did not. Drinking coffee was especially protective against breast cancer among those with a BRCA1 mutation.

Those who drank one to three cups daily had a 10 per cent lower chance of developing breast cancer than those who did not drink coffee. Those who drank four or five cups had a 25 per cent lower risk. And those who drank six cups or more had a 69 per cent lower chance of developing breast cancer.

Coffee drinking had a negligible effect on breast cancer risk for women with the BRCA2 gene mutation, however.

"These results suggest that among women with BRCA gene mutation, coffee consumption is unlikely to be harmful and that high levels of consumption may in fact be related to reduced breast cancer risk," summarized the study.

The study looked at 1,690 women from 40 clinical centres in four countries. They were surveyed about their lifetime coffee consumption through a self-administered questionnaire.

The researchers believe the lower cancer risk may be the result of phtoestrogens found in the coffee. Decaffeinated coffee consumption had no effect on breast cancer rates.

"In conclusion, our findings suggest that relatively high coffee consumption may reduce breast cancer risk among women with BRCA and/or BRCA2 gene mutations," stated the study.

"It will be of great importance to confirm this association in other populations, and if confirmed, to explore the biological basis for this observation."

Narod hopes to use the research to discover other ways of preventing breast cancer.

"If we can understand how it is that coffee exactly went about preventing breast cancer that may give us a clue to other preventative treatments we can do without the side effects of drinking that much coffee," he said.

Soozy · Post by **Soozy** » 1/5/2006, 8:22 am

But I hate coffee

Still, hopefully I don't have that mutation thing - that's one of the ones where you have lots of relatives who've had breast cancer and usually early on isn't it?

beautiful liar · Post by **beautiful liar** » 1/5/2006, 11:37 am

world coffee supplies are going to be at a critical rate next year according to something i read on the bbc. this year the coffee bean harvest was at an all time high - but it usually takes the plants a year to recover from a large yield.

its4am_isanybodyhome · Post by **its4am_isanybodyhome** » 1/5/2006, 12:14 pm

i used to drink coffee all the time but now i hate it
oh well

Kathy · Post by **Kathy** » 1/5/2006, 1:54 pm

ever since I went to a small university with 3 Tim Hortons' on campus and 2 within a 5 minute walk... I've been an addict

xoNoDoubt69 · Post by **xoNoDoubt69** » 1/5/2006, 2:29 pm

Soozy wrote:But I hate coffee

ditto

SaturdayNightz · Post by **SaturdayNightz** » 1/5/2006, 2:34 pm

If That's The Case, I Will Never Get Breastases cancer, because 1. i'm a dude, and second, I have nore coffee beans in me than Juan Valdez.

SaturdayNightz · Post by **SaturdayNightz** » 1/5/2006, 2:35 pm

Kathy14 wrote:ever since I went to a small university with 3 Tim Hortons' on campus and 2 within a 5 minute walk... I've been an addict

yep yep..

Tim Horton's gets you every time.

beautiful liar · Post by **beautiful liar** » 1/5/2006, 4:19 pm

SaturdayNightz wrote:If That's The Case, I Will Never Get Breastases cancer, because 1. i'm a dude, and second, I have nore coffee beans in me than Juan Valdez.

men can get breast cancer. it is not a disease that solely women get. chances are just higher if you're female.

happening fish · Post by **happening fish** » 1/5/2006, 4:21 pm

I don't mind coffee but my stomach can't handle it. Too acidic. Makes me ill for days.

Kathy · Post by **Kathy** » 1/5/2006, 5:06 pm

I drink coffee but not on an empty stomach... otherwise I get ill too. If I drink it when I've eaten something it doesn't bother me

superrgirll · Post by **superrgirll** » 1/5/2006, 6:01 pm

happening fish wrote:I don't mind coffee but my stomach can't handle it. Too acidic. Makes me ill for days.

same thing happens to me. and i get a really bad headache.

AnnieDreams · Post by **AnnieDreams** » 1/5/2006, 6:56 pm

I read an article once that was like "LOTS OF COFFEE REDUCES THE RISK OF EVERYTHING!"

except, like, scientific and with statistics and stuff.

Kathy · Post by **Kathy** » 1/5/2006, 7:04 pm

Almost any issue you can think of, there are studies out there to prove it. And there are always others that disagree

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » 1/5/2006, 7:37 pm

I love coffee.

Nabob's the best. :nod:

Kathy · Post by **Kathy** » 1/5/2006, 7:44 pm

i love coffee with bailey's in it. Okay, now that I've said that I'm gonna go have some

its4am_isanybodyhome · Post by **its4am_isanybodyhome** » 1/5/2006, 8:32 pm

i like bailey's

Kathy · Post by **Kathy** » 1/5/2006, 8:34 pm

mmm... bailey's :drool:

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » 1/5/2006, 8:40 pm

I drank several esspresso's in the course of an hour once.

Kathy · Post by **Kathy** » 1/5/2006, 8:43 pm

I did that last week and within 30 minutes I thought my heart was going to explode