Uterine cancer risk lowered for female coffee drinkers

Women who drink four or more cups of coffee a day may have a reduced risk of developing cancer in the lining of their uterus, according to a study. Researchers who looked at more than 67,000  nurses found that women who drank that much coffee were one-quarter less likely to develop endometrial cancer than women who averaged less than a cup a day, said the study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

The absolute risk that any one woman, coffee drinker or not, would develop the cancer was fairly small, with only 672 women — or one percent of the study group — being diagnosed with it over 26 years. While researchers could also not say for certain that coffee was the reason for the lower risk among those who drank a lot of coffee, the study adds to several others with similar results.

Higher concentrations of insulin and higher lifetime exposure to estrogen have both been linked to a higher risk of endometrial cancer. Researchers looked at a number of other factors, such as differences in women’s weight, since obesity is also linked to a higher risk of endometrial cancer, but that did not account for the lower cancer risk seen among coffee drinkers. Read more…