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Higher coffee consumption shows ties to decreased melanoma risk

People who consumed at least four cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a lower risk of malignant melanoma, according to recently published study results.

Erikka Loftfield, MPH, and colleagues conducted a National Institutes for Health- American Association of Retired Persons prospective study by assessing coffee intake in a self-administered, 124-item food frequency questionnaire. The researchers identified 2,904 incident cases of malignant melanoma among 447,357 non-Hispanic white participants during 4,329,044 person-years (median, 10.5 years follow-up). There were 402,783 coffee drinkers identified, with non-coffee drinkers used as a reference group in measuring subsequent melanoma risk.

Erikka Loftfield

Dose-response analysis results revealed an association between a lower risk of malignant melanoma among the highest category of coffee intake (at least four cups a day) compared with lower consumption (≤ 1 cup per day) total. Caffeinated coffee consumption had a statistical association (≥ 4 cups per day), whereas decaffeinated coffee did not, according to the researchers.

The researchers concluded that, compared with non-coffee drinkers, those who drank the most coffee had a 20% lower risk of malignant melanoma in situ, which could indicate different disease etiologies, or a potential role of coffee consumption in inhibiting disease progression.

Disclosure: The study was supported in part by the Yale-national Cancer Institute predoctoral training grant T32 CA105666 to STM and by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute.