Coffee Cuts Breast Cancer Risk in Some Women

I LOVE coffee. Although I drink too much of this manna, I rationalize it by remembering that it reduces risk for Parkinson's Disease and liver cancer. Now, if I had breasts and was Jewish, I could add prevention of breast cancer to my list of rationalizations.

As posted on Yahoo News:

Women with a particular gene mutation may reduce their risk of breast cancer by a startling amount simply by drinking coffee, according to new Canadian research.

The study, published in the January edition of the International Journal of Cancer, found that women with the so-called BRCA1 mutation, who have about an 80 percent risk of developing breast cancer before their 70th birthday, benefited from heavy coffee consumption.

"Those women who drank six or more cups of coffee a day on average had about a 75-percent reduction (sic) in the risk of breast cancer," University of Toronto professor and principal study author, Steven Narod, told broadcaster CTV.

Narod is a leading cancer researcher who helped isolate BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations a decade ago in women primarily of Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish heritage.

The results of the study indicate that women who drank one to three cups of coffee per day reduced their risk of breast cancer by 10 percent. The risk is further reduced, by 25 percent, if women drink four to five cups, and up to 69 percent beyond five cups.

Only women who drank caffeinated coffee derived any benefit, however.

"Estrogen is metabolized by different pathways, and one pathway yields to good estrogen, the other to bad estrogen ... Women who have more good estrogen compared to bad have been shown to have a lower risk of cancer. It's like a marker of risk," team researcher Joanne Kotsopoulos told AFP.

"Caffeine affects the enzyme that increases the good estrogen production," she said.

Other foods such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts and soy, and supplements such as the broccoli extract DIM or Diindolylmethane, sold in pill form, may offer similar cancer protection.

But, Andre Nkondjoka, an epidemiologist at the University of Montreal hospital and study co-author, noted that coffee contains other elements, notably antioxidants.

"I'm personally convinced that the combination of all these ingredients play a role," he said.

Nkondjoka recalled a recent US study which showed drinking coffee produced fewer side-effects than generally expected, while reducing hypertension.