People who drink two to four cups of coffee a day have a lower risk of bowel cancer recurrence, according to a new scientific study published in the International Journal of Oncology.
British and Dutch researchers studied 1,719 people with bowel cancer and found that those Those who drank at least two cups of coffee a day had a lower risk of relapse.
As the Guardian notes, the researchers concluded that patients who drank more coffee had a greater risk reduction. Notably, study participants who drank at least five cups a day were 32% less likely to develop bowel cancer again compared to those who drank less than two cups. At the same time, higher levels of coffee consumption appeared to be closely associated with a patient's chances of survival, while those who drank at least five cups were 29% less likely to die.
“The fact that the study shows that drinking three to four cups of coffee can reduce the likelihood of colon cancer recurrence is interesting,” said lead researcher Dr. Ellen Kampmann, a professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Mark Gander, co-author of the study and head of the department of epidemiology and cancer prevention at the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said the results are “surprising because we don’t fully understand why coffee has such an effect on bowel cancer patients. The data is very promising as it may point to a way to improve the prognosis and survival of patients with bowel cancer.”
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