Drinking Coffee Linked to Lower Risk of Developing Head and Neck Cancers

Coffee and tea may help the body stave off head and neck cancers, according to a new meta-analysis, but any protective effect may require drinking several cups a day.

Published in Cancer, the meta-analysis reviewed 14 pre-existing studies that involved 9,548 cases of head or neck cancers and 15,783 control cases.

After assessing the participants’ answers to dietary questionnaires, the researchers found that the participants who drank four or more cups of caffeinated coffee a day were significantly less likely to develop head or neck cancers and oral cavity cancer.

A more moderate habit of drinking one cup of decaffeinated coffee a day was also associated with a lower chance of developing oral cavity cancer, but there was no observed effect on head and neck cancers.

Down with the brown

Head and neck cancer is the  7^th most commonly diagnosed cancer globally, accounting for more than 745,000 new cases and 364,000 deaths in a given year.

Infection from the human papillomavirus is thought to account for the majority of head and neck cancer cases, although alcohol and tobacco use are also key risk factors.

The effect of coffee and tea is less established; some studies have shown no significant association between consumption of the beverages and cancer rates, while others indicate the drinks may reduce the risk of the disease.

To help determine whether there is a relationship, the researchers – from the University of Utah School of Medicine and other institutions – re-examined data from 14 different studies, which were all conducted as part of the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology consortium.

All the studies used dietary questionnaires to gauge how much tobacco, alcohol, tea and coffee the participants consumed. Nine of the studies collected data on decaffeinated coffee consumption. Most participants were recruited from North America and Europe.

A total of 9,548 cases and 15,783 controls were included in the researchers’ meta-analysis. Most cancer cases occurred in males (79.3%) and those who smoked and consumed more alcohol than the controls.

Moderate caffeinated coffee drinking appeared to have no association with head and neck cancers. A high consumption – four or more cups a day – however, was associated with a 17% lower chance of developing the cancers, specifically cancers of the oral cavity and the oropharynx.

Drinking decaffeinated coffee was only associated with a reduced risk of oral cavity cancer, but this effect appeared to occur at a lower consumption rate of one cup a day.

The effect of tea drinking was less clear. A daily cup was associated with a lower risk of hypopharyngeal cancer, but two cups or more was associated with an increased risk of laryngeal cancer.

This somewhat mixed picture led the researchers to conclude that, despite the positive findings linked with coffee consumption, more data is still needed before firm dietary conclusions can be made.

“Coffee and tea habits are fairly complex, and these findings support the need for more data and further studies around the impact that coffee and tea can have on reducing cancer risk,” senior author Yuan-Chin Amy Lee, an associate professor at the Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah School of Medicine, said in a statement.

Other nutrition researchers, who were not involved in the study, have broadly agreed with this point.

“As the investigators highlight, more work would be needed to achieve a more detailed understanding,” Dr. Ben O’Leary, a clinician scientist at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, told the UK’s Science Media Centre in a statement. “This would be needed before any advice or recommendations could be made.”

Reference: Nguyen T, Koric A, Chang CPE, et al. Coffee and tea consumption and the risk of head and neck cancer: An updated pooled analysis in the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium. Cancer. 2024. doi: 10.1002/cncr.35620