Coffee May Reduce Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence After Cure

A study in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Cancer Society, found that drinking just two cups of coffee a day inhibited tumor growth and reduced the risk of recurrence in women diagnosed with breast cancer and treated with the antiestrogen drug tamoxifen.

In 2013, Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Cancer Society, published a study by researchers at Lund University in Sweden that investigated the relationship between cancer recurrence and coffee intake in 300 patients taking the breast cancer treatment tamoxifen, but at the time the researchers could not explain why coffee prevented breast cancer recurrence in these women.

Recently, Lund University and SkaneSkane University Hospital published a report on 1090 breast cancer patients again in the journal Clinical Cancer Research: breast cancer patients who drank more than 2 cups of coffee a day reduced their risk of cancer recurrence by half.

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the United States after skin cancer, affecting one in eight women, and one of the top three cancers most common to women in our country.

In general, estrogen therapy is the most common treatment for breast cancer, and tamoxifen is used to treat advanced breast cancer and ovarian cancer. In clinical treatment of breast cancer, the effective rate is generally 30%, the effect of estrogen receptor positive patients is better (49%), and the effect of negative patients is poor (7%).

In the study, 500 of 1090 women with breast cancer took tamoxifen, and the participants were divided into three groups: low coffee consumers (less than one cup per day), normal consumers (2-4 cups per day), and high coffee consumers (5 cups per day or more). The researchers found that normal consumers and high coffee consumers had a breast cancer recurrence rate that was half as low as those who drank no coffee or low doses.

The researchers believe caffeine and caffeic acid in coffee are responsible for the effects. Breast cancer cells respond to caffeine, and when combined with moxifen, the caffeine effect reduces cell division and promotes cell death. These substances have an effect on breast cancer cells by shutting down signaling pathways that cancer cells need to grow.

Caffeine enhances tamoxifen's effectiveness, the team said, but it also highlights the need for patients to take the right prescription medication. The benefits of medication are extremely important, but if you are also a coffee lover, you don't need to change your coffee drinking habits; 2 cups of coffee a day is enough to bring benefits.

Preventing breast cancer recurrence isn't the only benefit coffee has: caffeinated beverages are generally rich in antioxidants and may even help prevent diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Keep in mind, however, that this doesn't mean coffee is good for us. Too much coffee can also lower your blood pressure.