Coffee intake lowers risk of endometrial cancer

Women who love to drink coffee will have more reason to do so following a study that reports an association between coffee consumption and a reduced risk of endometrial cancer, particularly among those with higher body mass index (BMI).

“Epidemiologic studies suggest that coffee consumption may be inversely associated with risk of endometrial cancer, the most common gynaecological malignancy in developed countries,” the authors said. “Furthermore, coffee consumption may lower circulating concentrations of oestrogen and insulin, hormones implicated in endometrial carcinogenesis.”

In this study, individual-level data from 19 epidemiologic studies (six cohort and 13 case-control) of 12,159 patients with endometrial cancer and 27,479 controls from the Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium (E2C2) were combined.

The authors calculated odds ratios (ORs) and their corresponding 95 percent confidence intervals (CIs) using logistic regression. They also adjusted all models for potential confounders, such as age, race, BMI, smoking status, diabetes status, study design, and study site.

Coffee drinkers showed a lower risk of endometrial cancer than noncoffee drinkers (multiadjusted OR, 0.87, 95 percent CI, 0.79‒0.95). A dose-response relationship was noted between higher coffee consumption and reduced risk of endometrial cancer.

Compared with noncoffee drinkers, those who drank coffee had adjusted pooled ORs of 0.90 (95 percent CI, 0.82‒1.00) for 1 cup/day, 0.86 (95 percent CI, 0.78‒0.95) for 2‒3 cups/day, and 0.76 (95 percent CI, 0.66‒0.87) for >4 cups/day (p_trend<0.001).

Notably, the inverse association observed between coffee consumption and risk of endometrial cancer was more pronounced in women with BMI >25 kg/m².

“Antioxidants and other chemopreventive compounds in coffee may have anticarcinogenic effects,” the authors said. “Based on available meta-analyses, the World Cancer Research Fund concluded that consumption of coffee probably protects against endometrial cancer.”