Drinking Coffee May Lower Prostate Cancer Recurrence, Progression

SEATTLEDrinking more coffee may lower the risk of prostate cancer recurrence and progression, according to a new study published in the online version of Cancer Causes & Control.

Janet L Stanford, Ph.D., co-director of the Program in Prostate Cancer Research in the Fred Hutch Public Health Science Division conducted the study to determine whether the bioactive compounds in coffee and tea may prevent recurrence and delay progression of prostate cancer.

The study, examined men who drank four or more cups of coffee a day had a 59% reduced risk of prostate recurrence and/or progression in comparison to those that drank less. The participants were a group of 1,001 prostate cancer survivors between the ages of 35-74 years old who were diagnosed between 2002-2005 and were residents of King County, Wash. Questions were answered by the participants regarding diet and beverage consumption two years prior to prostate cancer using a validated food frequency questionnaire. They were also interviewed about demographic and lifestyle information, family history of cancer, medication use and prostate cancer screening history. Five years after the diagnosis, researchers followed up with patients to determine whether the cancer had recurred and/or progressed.

Of the original 1,001 patients, 630 answered questions regarding coffee intake, fit the follow-up criteria and were included in the final analysis. Of those, 61% of the men consumed at least one cup of coffee per day and 12% consumed the highest amount: four or more cups per day.

 The study also evaluated daily coffee consumption in relation to prostate cancer-specific death in 894 patients using data from the initial food frequency questionnaire. After the median follow-up period of eight-and-a-half years, 125 of the men had died, including 38 specifically from prostate cancer. Daily coffee consumption was not associated with prostate cancer-specific mortality or other-cause mortality, but with few deaths these analyses were limited.

Our study differs from previous ones because we used a composite definition of prostate cancer recurrence/progression," said first author Milan Geybels, a doctoral student at Maastricht University in the Netherlands who was a graduate student in Stanfords Prostate Studies group at Fred Hutch when the study was conducted. We used detailed information on follow-up prostate-specific antigen levels, use of secondary treatment for prostate cancer and data from scans and biopsies to assess occurrence of metastases and cause-specific mortality during follow up. Using these detailed data, we could determine whether a patient had evidence of prostate cancer recurrence or progression."

No association was discovered between coffee drinking and reduced mortality, although the study included too few men who died of prostate cancer.

The study did not find a an associated reduction of recurrence/progression in tea drinkers nor did it draw conclusions regarding impact of tea drinking and prostate-specific mortality.

To our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate the potential association between tea consumption and prostate cancer outcomes," the authors wrote. It is important to note, however, that few patients in our cohort were regular tea drinkers and the highest category of tea consumption was one or more cups per day. The association should be investigated in future studies that have access to larger populations with higher levels of tea consumption."

Further research is required to understand the mechanisms underlying the result of the study.

Previous studies have shown that coffee reduces risk of aggressive breast cancer and endometrial cancer.