3 cups of coffee a day
presumably keep skin cancer away
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Coffee is one beverage that manages its dual allegations of benefits and
disadvantages pretty well. Shedding light on one such cause, experts from the
American Association of Cancer Research have disclosed that coffee consumption
may shield against basal cell carcinoma (BCC), a common skin cancer.
As part of the investigation, information was collected from the Nurses Health
Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Around 72,921 subjects were
inspected between June 1984 and June 2008 in the former analysis while 39,976
participants were followed between June 1986 and June 2008 in the latter study.
“Mouse studies have shown that oral or topical caffeine promotes elimination of
UV-damaged keratinocytes via apoptosis (programmed cell death) and markedly
reduces subsequent SCC development. However, in our cohort analysis, we did not
find any inverse association between coffee consumption and the risk for SCC,”
specified Fengju Song, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the department of
dermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Reportedly, there were 25,480 skin cancer cases cumulatively. Out of which
22,786 were BCC cases while 1,953 people suffered from squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)
and 741 were diagnosed with melanoma.
The team found that women who consumed above 3 cups of coffee each day seemed to
have 20% less chances of BCC while men who did the same had a 9% reduction in
risk. However, those who consumed less than 1 cup every month did not appear to
show significant results.
The analysts were particularly surprised by the inverse relation between coffee
and cancer being found specifically in BCC. Those who consumed the highest
quintile seemingly had the lowest risk factor. They found that there was an 18
percent drop in risk for women and a 13 percent reduction for men.Earlier
studies have shown a similar link but epidemiologic studies have not
conclusively shown the same outcomes.
Further trials to gauge the mechanism behind this link are underway. This
analysis was presented at the 10th AACR International Conference on Frontiers in
Cancer Prevention Research.