Drinking Coffee Lowers Risk of Common Skin Cancer...
Added On : 27th October 2011
Drinking Coffee Lowers Risk of Common Skin Cancer - Especially in WomenCoffee drinkers, especially women, have reason to be particularly cheerful when they pick up their lattes today.
Scientists found that women who drank three or more cups of coffee a day had a 20 per cent lower risk of developing the most common form of skin cancer compared to those who had less than one cup per month.
Men who drank the same amount saw a nine percent lower risk of basal cell carcinoma, a team from Harvard Medical School told a U.S cancer conference in Boston.
Researcher Fengju Song, said: 'Given the nearly one million new cases of BCC diagnosed each year in the United States, daily dietary factors with even small protective effects may have great public health impact.
'Our study indicates that coffee consumption may be an important option to help prevent BCC.'
The data was taken from the Nurses Health Study (Brigham and Womens Hospital) and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (Harvard School of Public Health).
In the Nurses Health Study, more than 70,000 participants were followed from June 1984 to June 2008. In the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, nearly 40,000 participants were followed from June 1986 to June 2008.
The researchers reported 25,480 skin cancer cases. Basal cell carcinoma was the most frequently diagnosed with 22,786. In contrast there were only 1,953 cases of squamous cell carcinoma and 741 melanoma cases.
Basal cell carcinoma is a non-melanoma form of skin cancer, which means it only affects the upper layers of skin.
It accounts for around 80 per cent of all cases of skin cancer, and there are an estimated 100,000 new cases each year in the UK.
Repeated sunburn, and frequent sun bed use both raise a person's risk of developing the cancer. People who have fair skin, red hair and blue eyes are therefore more vulnerable.
Treatments include surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The outlook is usually good because it only spreads to other parts of the body in 0.5 per cent of cases.
Past research has linked drinking caffeinated coffee to lower risk of breast, uterine, prostate and colon cancers.
