Interesting research was published this week in the prestigious journal Clinical Cancer Research indicating the the key ingredients in coffee – caffeine and caffeic acid – may slow the the progression of breast cancer in women.
The study, conducted by researchers at Lund University in Sweden, followed 1,090 patients with invasive primary breast cancer in Sweden. The researchers looked at coffee consumption on patient and tumor characteristics and disease-free survival rates.
The researches looked at two particular types of cancer cells – estrogen positive and estrogen negative to see if coffee intake affected them differently.
Drinking between two to give cups of coffee per day was associated with smaller invasive primary tumors and lower proportion of estrogen positive tumors. Caffeine and caffeic acid were also found to suppress the growth of both types of cancer cells the researchers were looking at.
Patients were treated with standard anti-cancer medication tamoxifen will also ingesting coffee.
The researchers concluded that coffee consumption somehow weakens the cancer cells and makes them more susceptible to the drug tamoxifen. While the exact mechanism of doing this was not apparent they plan to study the results further to pinpoint the exact cause.
The news is great for cancer sufferers who often are unsure as to what they shoud and should not eat when undergoing treatment. The findings mean that patients who drink coffee can comfortably continue to do so and it will likely help rather than hurt their condition.
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