Coffee reduces skin cancer risk

Prevent the skin cancer with coffee consumption

10/25/2011

Already in August, scientists from Rudgers University in New Jersey (USA) reported in the journal „Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences“ (PNAS) that coffee applied to the skin causes a significant reduction in skin cancer risk. Now US researchers have confirmed this statement in a further comprehensive investigation, also with regard to the coffee enjoyment.

Regular consumption of coffee reduces the risk of skin cancer by up to 20 percent, with women in particular benefiting from the protective effect, said study author, Fengju Song, doctoral student at the Department of Dermatology at Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Presenting the study results at the tenth International Cancer Prevention Conference of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), US scientists reported a clear cancer-preventive effect of the caffeinated hot beverage.

Basal cell carcinoma most common skin cancer diseases
As part of their comprehensive study, the US scientists evaluated the results of two clinical studies that observed the association between baseline cell carcinoma and coffee consumption in tens of thousands of volunteers over 14 and 16 years, respectively. Basal cell carcinomas, which are mainly caused by UV radiation, are the most common type of skin cancer disease, but they grow relatively slowly and end much less frequently than so-called black skin cancer (malignant melanoma). Nevertheless, the health risks of basal cell carcinomas should not be underestimated and effective prevention could save many people from this particularly common form of skin cancer. With approximately one million new cases of basal cell carcinomas per year in the US alone, even a relatively low protective effect of coffee could have a far-reaching effect on public health, Fengju Song reported on the „10th International Conference on Frontiers Cancer Prevention Research“ the AACR.

Enjoying coffee reduces the risk of skin cancer
According to the current study, the risk of skin cancer decreases continuously with increasing coffee consumption. The more cups of coffee the study participants drank each day, the less they became ill with basal cell carcinoma, explained Fengju Song. According to the US researcher, however, the effect is much more significant in women than in men. For example, at a coffee consumption of at least three cups a day, men would have a nine percent lower risk of skin cancer than people who drank less than a cup of coffee a day. For women, consuming three cups of coffee a day reduced the risk of basal cell carcinoma by as much as 20 percent. However, the cancer-preventing effect had not been observed with decaffeinated coffee, suggesting that the protective effect emanates from the caffeine, the US researchers said. The current study clearly shows, „that coffee consumption can be an important option in the prevention of basal cell carcinoma“, Fengju Song emphasized.

Coffee generally cancer preventive?
While in the past, coffee was largely considered harmful to health, as was the famous canon of Karl Gottlieb Hering „ C-a-f-f-e-e, do not drink so much coffee!“ clarifies, are currently increasing studies that demonstrate a positive effect of the caffeine-containing hot drink on health. For example, US researchers had already identified a cancer-preventing effect of caffeine in August, and a group of Chinese researchers came to the conclusion that as the coffee consumption increases, the overall cancer risk decreases. Chinese scientists reported that moderate coffee drinkers were 11 percent less likely to be cancerous than non-coffee users. Regular coffee consumers were 13 percent less likely to die and strong coffee drinkers 18 percent less, according to Chinese scientists. The researchers analyzed 59 existing studies that analyzed the relationship between coffee consumption and various cancers, including breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer and leukemia. In the future, coffee could not only make a name for itself as a wake-up agent, but also play an increasingly important role in cancer prevention, the experts explained. (Fp)

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Picture: Peter Friday