Coffee consumption may reduce colorectal cancer recurrence, all-cause mortality
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Coffee consumption may reduce risk for colorectal cancer recurrence and all-cause mortality, according to research published in the International Journal of Cancer.
“Evidence from the literature suggests that coffee consumption may help to reduce the risk for colorectal cancer,” study first author Abisola M. Oyelere, MSc, a PhD student at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, told Healio. “Although similar epidemiological evidence has been documented for colorectal cancer prognosis, the existing studies were either done in a different population or had very little evidence for colorectal cancer recurrence. Therefore, we conducted a study to assess the association of coffee consumption with cancer recurrence and all-cause mortality [among patients with colorectal cancer] in the Netherlands.”
The study — supervised by Prof. Ellen Kampman — included data from 1,719 patients with stage I to stage III colorectal cancer.
Investigators recruited participants at diagnosis and followed them during and after treatment. Researchers used a semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaire to assess coffee consumption.
After median follow-up of 6.6 years, consumption of more than four cups of coffee per day appeared associated with a 32% (95% CI, 0.49-0.94) reduced risk for colorectal cancer recurrence compared with consumption of less than two cups per day.
Healio spoke with Oyelere about the findings and their implications, as well as next steps in research.
Healio: How did you conduct this study?
Oyelere: This study was embedded in the COLON study, a prospective cohort of patients with colorectal cancer recruited at diagnosis and followed for at least 5 years. We used questionnaires to obtain information on coffee consumption and other lifestyle characteristics. We obtained information on cancer recurrence from the Netherlands Cancer Registry, and we obtained information about vital status from the Personal Records Database.
Healio: What did you find?
Oyelere: Consuming more than four cups of coffee per day compared with less than two cups of coffee appeared associated with a 32% reduced risk for colorectal cancer recurrence. The risk for dying also was reduced. Consuming three to five cups of coffee per day seems sufficient to reduce the risk of dying among patients with colorectal cancer.
Healio: Do you have a hypotheses for why coffee may have a protective effect?
Oyelere: More studies are needed to understand the mechanism underlying the association we observed. However, coffee is a heterogeneous mixture of compounds that possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumorigenic properties. Additionally, coffee consumption has been shown to improve liver function, and the liver is one of the common sites of metastasis. Coffee consumption also is hypothesized to improve bowel motility.
Healio: Is this evidence strong enough to support clinicians encouraging patients with colorectal cancer to increase coffee consumption?
Oyelere: It is important to understand the mechanism that underlies the association between coffee consumption and colorectal cancer prognosis before recommending coffee consumption to patients with colorectal cancer.
Healio: What questions remain unanswered, and what additional research do you have planned?
Oyelere: As mentioned earlier, it is important to answer the question of how coffee consumption may help to reduce the risk for cancer recurrence or all-cause mortality among patients with colorectal cancer. Subsequently, our research team will be focusing on this question using several approaches, including metabolomics.
Healio: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Oyelere: We cannot overemphasize that our study is observational and, thus, has some limitations and must be interpreted with caution. However, similar findings were reported in other populations, such as the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study.
References:
- Hu Y, et al. Gastroenterology. 2018; doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2017.11.010.
- Oyelere AM, et al. Int J Cancer. 2024; doi:10.1002/ijc.34879.
Abisola M. Oyelere, MSc, can be reached at Wageningen University & Research, Division of Nutrition and Health, Stippeneng 4, 6708 WE Wageningen, Netherlands; email: abisola.oyelere@wur.nl.
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