Coffee and Breast Cancer: Pre- and Post-Menopause

Coffee has been the subject of many studies related to its advantages and disadvantages to health. Studies show that it could fend off diabetes 2, heart disease, asthma, gallstones, Parkinson's disease and liver cancer (2). In this post, we detail a few of the major studies done on its effect on breast cancer, especially before and after menopause.

  


The studies results included on the Coffee and Health website (from the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee) were divided in different groups. Here are the three major ones that we see relate mostly to our purposes:

1- General: A French prospective study following 67,703 women for 11 years showed no relationship between coffee (or caffeine) and breast cancer risk.

2- In pre-menopausal women: the consumption of regular coffee (4 cups/day) has been linked to a reduced of breast cancer by 38%. The amount mentioned in the study is 4 cups a day.

- In pre-menopausal women with genetic risk, carrying BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation, the risk is reduced by 25-70% with 4-6 cups of coffee a day in comparison with non coffee drinkers. This does not apply to decaffeinated coffee.

- Women who carry another gene linked to modulating the risk of breast cancer, CYP1A2, also have a 64% reduced risk compared to non coffee drinkers.

- The data suggests that genetic variability has to be taken into consideration when assessing diet and disease relation.

3- In post-menopausal women: recent studies show that there is no relation between coffee consumption and the occurrence of breast cancer in post-menopausal women.

- The main studies here included samples from French, Italian and Swedish women studies for up to 6-10 years.

- A recent analysis suggested that increasing coffee intake by 2 cups daily tended to reduce breast cancer risk. Yet, there was a borderline significant association between the consumption and the reduced risk with women from USA and Europe but from Asia. This could be due to the limited size of the Asian sample. Also coffee intake was not associated with a changed risk of benign breast disease and subsequent development of breast cancer.

- A recent Dutch study found that there is no association between coffee intake and the risk of breast cancer in all levels of intake, and no relation to lifestyle or body mass index.

- A Swedish study of 5,929 women showed a significant reduced risk of non-hormone receptive breast cancer in heavy coffee consumers. Heavy consumption here is more than 5 cups a day. This is in comparison to those who drink less than 1 cup a day.

As it can be seen more studied are needed on the association between coffee consumption and the risk of breast cancer.         


Sources:

1- Coffee and Health: http://www.coffeeandhealth.org/research-centre/cancer/coffee-consumption-and-breast-ovary-and-endometrial-cancers/

2- The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/coffee-may-prevent-breast-cancer-among-postmenopausal-women/article624606/

Image:

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/coffee/images/17731301/title/cup-coffee-photo