Aug. 2, 2007

Coffee May Curb Liver Cancer

Researchers Say Disease Appears To Be Rarer In Coffee Drinkers Than In Non-Drinkers

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(WebMD)  Could a cup of coffee cut your risk of developing liver cancer? Maybe, but don't bet your next latte on it just yet.

A new report, published in the August edition of the journal Hepatology, boils down the findings from 10 studies on coffee and liver cancer.

The studies were reviewed by researchers including Francesca Bravi, ScD of the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri" in Milan, Italy.

Together, the studies included 2,260 people with liver cancer and nearly 240,000 people without liver cancer. Participants lived in Greece, Italy, or Japan.

Participants reported their coffee-drinking habits. The data show that coffee drinkers were 41 percent less likely to have been diagnosed with liver cancer than people who don't drink coffee. For every daily cup of coffee people drank, their odds of having been diagnosed with liver cancer dropped by 23 percent, compared with people who never drink coffee.

People who drank a lot of coffee were 55 percent less likely to have been diagnosed with liver cancer than those who didn't drink any coffee.

What's a lot of coffee? That depends on which of the 10 studies you look at. Some of the studies defined high coffee consumption as three or more daily cups. Others set the bar lower, at more than one daily cup.

The fact that liver cancer was rarer among coffee drinkers a world apart — in Greece, Italy, and Japan — suggests that the coffee findings weren't a fluke or a local phenomenon, note Bravi and colleagues.

They speculate that coffee perks up liver enzymes and may cut cirrhosis and liver cancer.

But Bravi's team doesn't promise that drinking coffee will prevent liver cancer. They note that people with various digestive and liver diseases might choose not to drink coffee for reasons that aren't reflected in the data.

Whether or not coffee prevents liver cancer "remains open to discussion," write Bravi and colleagues.



By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang, M.D.
© 2007 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Add a Comment
by rushman71 August 2, 2007 4:37 PM PDT
Coffee May Curb Liver Cancer. But maryjane can do more!!!
Reply to this comment
by opfor311 August 2, 2007 6:03 PM PDT
Coffee May Curb Liver Cancer. But maryjane can do more!!!
Posted by rushman71

No, maryjane doesn't do anything for liver cancer, but after you take it, you just don't care about your liver cancer anymore.
Reply to this comment
by drinuk August 2, 2007 11:23 PM PDT
I wish CBS you would Stop publishing stuff like this. Right now Big Pharma are trying to figure out how they can ban it, they are in all night talks with their friends at the FDA.

Murdoch's first big story in the Wall Street Journal, "COFFEE BRINGS BIG PHARMA CANCER INDUSTRY TO IT'S KNEES" The byline being, Forget Chemo, get that Expresso down your neck twelve times a day.
Reply to this comment
by my2centss August 3, 2007 10:25 AM PDT
Next weeks headline," Coffee causes liver cancer."
Reply to this comment
by hermit22 August 3, 2007 12:02 PM PDT
Two Cents, your funny! thank for a good laugh today!

do the 45% that don't drink coffee drink booze?LOL
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