Caffeine Consumption Doesn't Raise Overall Breast Cancer Risk

Large study did discover link with benign breast disease, or when tumor was larger

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

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MONDAY, Oct. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Drinking coffee or consuming other caffeine-laden foods does not appear to boost breast cancer risk, new research indicates.

Caffeine "does not appear to be associated with overall risk of breast cancer," observed study co-author Dr. Shumin M. Zhang, from the division of preventive medicine, in the department of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

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"However," cautioned Zhang, "when consuming a high amount of caffeine or four cups or more daily of coffee, there is a possibility of increased risk of breast cancer for women with benign breast disease, or for developing certain subtypes of breast tumors that have less favorable prognoses."

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was published in the Oct. 13 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The authors noted that caffeine -- found in coffee, chocolate, tea, soft drinks and various medications -- is thought to be the world's most commonly ingested drug.

That said, recent research focused on women diagnosed with non-cancerous breast disease revealed that cutting caffeine from the diet could improve symptoms among such patients. Because benign breast disease is considered to be a risk factor for developing the malignant form of the disease, this finding had raised concerns that caffeine might also elevate the risk for malignant breast cancer.

To explore this possibility, Zhang and colleagues from Tokyo Women's Medical University in Japan looked at the diets of a pool of almost 39,000 women over the age of 45 over a period of four years, between 1992 and 1995. All the women worked as health-care professionals -- three-quarters as registered nurses.

The research team observed that nearly one-quarter never drank coffee, and about another quarter drank either one cup or less per day. Almost a third consumed two to three cups per day, while just over 15 percent downed four or more cups on a daily basis.

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