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Article IndexBY MARGARET MORGAN
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
In a report released earlier this week in the online edition of the Journal of the Cancer Institute, a study by the Harvard School of Public Health suggests that men who drink several cups of coffee daily may reduce their risk of dying from prostate cancer.
According to Kathryn M. Wilson, ScD, epidemiologist at Harvard and the study author, men in the study who drank one to three cups of coffee a day had a 30 percent lower risk of lethal prostate cancer. Those who drank six cups a day had a 60 percent lower risk. In this first large study looking specifically at the relationship between coffee and metastatic prostate cancer, Wilson says this is an exciting finding because there aren’t many modifiable risk factors for prostate cancer.
The study was conducted from 1986 to 2006 analyzing almost 48,000 men who reported intake of regular and decaffeinated coffee every four years from 1986. The researchers then calculated the risk for prostate cancer tied to the amount of coffee consumed. During the period of the study, they identified 5,035 cases of prostate cancer, of which 642 were fatal cases in which the cancer was metastatic, meaning that it had spread beyond the original site. After taking into account other lifestyle factors, such as age, smoking, obesity and exercise, the decline in the odds for prostate cancer remained, they said.
Wilson reported that this study adds to the evidence from a variety of diseases that coffee doesn't seem to be harmful and has shown, pretty consistently, to be associated with lower risk of Parkinson disease, type two diabetes and liver cancer - another potential plus for coffee. However, the researchers noted that the study was limited by self-reported data and the lack of data on coffee intake from earlier periods of the men's lives.A definite cause-and-effect link is still far from proven, experts say, and just how coffee might help thwart prostate malignancy isn't clear. Right now, the findings point only to an association between a love of that “cup o joe” and a healthier prostate. According to Wilson, more study will be needed to confirm the findings and to see if a biological explanation for the phenomenon exists. The bottom line is that it’s probably too early to tell men they should go out and start drinking coffee just because of this study.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed and the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the U.S. It affects one in six men during their lifetime. More than two million Americans and 16 million men around the world are prostate cancer survivors, the researchers say.
