Author information
1 Cancer Epidemiology Research Group, Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK.
2 Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK.
3 Cancer Epidemiology Research Group, Centre for Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. c.cardwell@qub.ac.uk.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Inverse associations have been observed between coffee consumption and liver cancer, but associations for other digestive cancers are unclear. Few previous studies have investigated coffee type (specifically instant or ground coffee) or a range of digestive cancer types within one cohort. We therefore investigated coffee consumption by type and digestive cancer risks in a population-based cohort.
METHODS:
The UK Biobank captured self-reported coffee consumption and cancer-registry recorded incident digestive cancers. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs were calculated using Cox regression. The risk of every type of digestive cancer was investigated in association with coffee consumption by dose-response and by coffee type (decaffeinated, instant and ground).
RESULTS:
Over 7.5 years of follow-up, 3567 developed digestive cancer among 471,779 participants. There were 88 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma and a marked association was observed for hepatocellular carcinoma in coffee drinkers (HR 0.50, 95% CI 0.29, 0.87), which was similar for instant (HR 0.51, 95% CI 0.28, 0.93) and ground coffee (HR 0.47, 95% CI 0.20, 1.08). We did not observe significant consistently reduced risks of other individual digestive cancers amongst coffee drinkers.