Coffee Consumption Reduces Breast Cancer Risk For Women With Genetic Mutation, Study Says

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 05 Jan 2006 - 0:00 PDT

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Consumption of caffeinated coffee significantly reduces the risk of developing breast cancer among women who have a specific genetic mutation that greatly increases the chance of being diagnosed with the disease, according to a study published in the Jan. 1 edition of the International Journal of Cancer, Reuters Health reports. Steven Narod, director of the Familial Breast Cancer Research Unit at the Centre for Research in Women's Health in Toronto, and colleagues examined at 40 clinics in four countries the records of 1,690 women who have the genetic mutations BRCA1 or BRCA2 and gave the women a self-administered questionnaire about coffee consumption. Women who drank six or more cups of caffeinated coffee per day were 69% less likely to develop breast cancer than women who drank no coffee, according to the study. One to three cups of coffee per day reduced the risk by 10% and four to five cups reduced it by 25% compared with women who drank no coffee. The researchers found that coffee consumption related to a significant reduction in breast cancer risk for women with the BRCA1 mutation but not for women with BRCA2 (Reuters Health, 1/3). In addition, the study finds that decaffeinated coffee did not reduce breast cancer risk. "We think the effect is through the caffeine on the female hormones," Narod said (Shin, New York Daily News, 1/4).

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