Inverse link between coffee intake and basal cell, not squamous cell carcinoma or melanoma risk
TUESDAY, Oct. 25 (HealthDay News) -- There is an inverse relationship between caffeinated coffee consumption and the risk of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), but not squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and melanoma, according to a study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research, held from Oct. 22 to 25 in Boston.
Fengju Song, Ph.D., from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues investigated the relationship between coffee consumption and risk of BCC, SCC, and melanoma. Data were collected from 72,921 participants in the Nurses' Health Study, and 39,976 participants in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. A total of 25,480 incident skin cancer cases were identified. The relative risks were calculated after adjusting for confounding variables and skin cancer risk factors.
The investigators found that coffee consumption was inversely associated with BCC risk, with a significant dose-response relationship for both men and women. Drinking more than three cups of coffee daily versus less than one cup per month was associated with a relative risk (RR) of 0.80 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.75 to 0.85) in women and 0.91 (95 percent CI, 0.81 to 1.02) in men. The amount of caffeine consumed correlated inversely with BCC risk, with individuals in the highest consumption quintile having the lowest risk (RRs, 0.82 and 0.87 for women and men, respectively). Consumption of decaffeinated coffee did not correlate with lower BCC risk. There was no inverse association between coffee consumption and SCC or melanoma.
"Coffee consumption is inversely associated with BCC risk in women and men, likely through the effect of caffeine," the authors write.
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