Coffee drinkers have a much lower risk of cancerous tumours re-growing in the bowels, according to new research.

An observational study among 1,719 people in the Netherlands has found that patients with colorectal cancer who nurse at least two cups of joe a day are less likely to relapse in the future. Drinking a few cups a day also seemed to reduce their chances of an early death.

This was true for patients suffering from all but the latest stages of bowel cancer, which were excluded from the analysis.

Today, bowel cancer resurfaces after treatment in up to 30 percent of patients, which means that if the recent findings from the Netherlands can be verified in larger studies, coffee could one day be recognized as a life-changing medicine for some cancer patients.

Compared to colorectal cancer patients who drank fewer than two cups of coffee a day, those included in the study who drank at least five cups a day had a 32 percent lower chance of their disease returning in the next six years or so.

During that same time frame, there was also a noticeable link between how much coffee a patient drank and their risk of dying from any cause, according to an international team of researchers, led by scientists at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Three to five cups of coffee a day was associated with the greatest reduction in all-cause mortality – peaking at roughly 29 percent compared to those who drank less than two cups. But after more than five cups a day, that peak dropped off.

The results suggest that drinking as much coffee as possible doesn't improve a cancer patient's odds, and it could even have negative outcomes for other aspects of their health. It seems there's a sweet spot to aim for.

The study in the Netherlands is one of the first to consider how coffee drinking impacts relapse rates among bowel cancer patients, not just their survival rates.


Sources - https://www.sciencealert.com/drinking-coffee-dramatically-lowers-the-risk-of-bowel-cancer-coming-back