Coffee Consumption Linked to Reduced Risk of Liver Cancer

After lung and stomach cancers, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or liver cancer, is the third largest cause of cancer deaths worldwide. A meta-analysis of 10 published studies on HCC that included quantitative information on coffee consumption led researchers in Milan, Italy, to conclude that there is an inverse relationship between coffee consumption and risk of HCC. The results of the study are published in the Aug. 2007 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

Researchers analyzed results from six case-control studies from southern Europe and Japan, and four cohort studies from Japan. The summary relative risk (RR) for coffee drinkers vs. non-drinkers was 0.54 for case-control studies, and 0.64 for cohort studies. The overall RR was 0.59. While researchers are certain of the favorable effect of coffee drinking, they say causal inferences cannot be made based on these observational studies. Some animal and laboratory studies, they say, have suggested that caffeine and other components of coffee have favorable effects on liver enzymes, and that certain compounds in coffee act as blocking agents with enzymes involved in carcinogenic detoxification. Researchers also noted that coffee drinking has been linked to reduced risk of liver disease and cirrhosis, which can lead to liver cancer.