This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Caffeine may be linked to increased risk for certain breast cancers
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The results of a recently published study indicate that caffeine consumption is not associated with an increased overall risk for breast cancer, except in women with a history of benign breast disease or tumors that are ER- or PR-negative or larger than 2 cm.
Previous studies examining this association have been inconclusive and have not evaluated risk by tumor size, lymph node status or tumor differentiation, according to researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Women’s Medical University in Tokyo.
Detailed dietary information was obtained using the baseline questionnaire of the Women’s Health Study (n=38,432). Ten-year follow-up identified 1,188 breast cancer cases.
In a multivariate analysis researchers found low relative risks for breast cancer and consumption of caffeine (RR=1.02; 95% CI, 0.84-1.22), coffee (RR=1.08; 95% CI, 0.89-1.30) and tea (RR=1.03; 95% CI 0.85-1.25).
Women with a history of benign breast disease who were in the highest quintile for caffeine consumption also had a borderline significant increased risk for breast cancer (RR=1.32; 95% CI, 0.99-1.76). In separate analyses, there were positive associations between caffeine consumption and risk for ER- and PR-negative breast cancer (RR=1.68; 95% CI, 1.01-2.81) and for developing tumors larger than 2 cm (RR=1.79; 95% CI, 1.18-2.72).
The researchers noted that the results of this study could be due to chance and that further research is needed.
Arch Intern Med. 2008;168:2022-2031.