New Delhi, Dec 23
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 and neck cancer is the seventh most common cancer worldwide, and rates are rising in low- and middle-income countries.
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.
“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 senior author Yuan-Chin Amy Lee, from Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah School of Medicine.