Coffee May Protect Against Head and Neck Cancers

Tue, Aug 18, 15 by Jim Couch

More good news for coffee drinkers!

According to a recent journal publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, regular coffee drinkers had a 39 percent decreased risk of oral cavity and pharynx cancers combined.  The pharynx is the part of the neck and throat that is immediately behind the mouth and nasal cavity.

Regular coffee drinkers were defined as having consumed an estimated four or more cups of coffee per day.  No similar findings were reported for decaf coffee or teas.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Utah, and actually came from pooled-analysis of nine studies collected by the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology consortium.

“Since coffee is so widely used and there is a relatively high incidence and low survival rate of these forms of cancer, our results have important public health implications that need to be further addressed,” said lead researcher Mia Hashibe, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of family and preventative medicine at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

“What makes our results so unique is that we had a very large sample size, and since we combined data across many studies, we had more statistical power to detect associations between cancer and coffee,” she added.