Coffee - Most Americans drink it every day, frequently more than one cup a day. But can drinking coffee protect you against malignant melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer? Maybe.
A study conducted at the National Institutes of Health has found an association between coffee drinking and a reduced risk of malignant melanoma. Drinking four or more cups of coffee per day was associated with a 20% decrease in the risk of malignant melanoma (melanoma that has spread to other areas of the body), but not to melanoma that has not spread.
This finding suggests there is an association between coffee drinking and a lowered risk of the spread of melanoma, but it does not prove it. Previous studies in mice have found that some of the chemical compounds, including caffeine, found in coffee suppress the cancer-causing effects of ultraviolet light. However, smaller studies in people have given inconsistent results.
Researchers surveyed nearly 447,500 people what they ate regularly, including how much coffee they drank. The people who were surveyed were white non-Hispanic people taking part in the National Institutes of Health-AARP cohort study and were enrolled in this study in 1995 and 1996. They were cancer free when at the start of the study and were followed for an average of 10.5 years. Those who said they drank coffee regularly were compared to non-coffee drinkers, and coffee drinkers were grouped according to how much coffee they said they drank daily. It is a prospective study because it enrolled people and then followed them over a course of time.
About 2,900 cases of malignant melanoma were diagnosed in the study participants over the years. About 1,900 cases of melanoma that had not spread to other parts of the body were diagnosed.
The biggest risk factor for developing melanoma is exposure to ultraviolet light in sunlight. Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the United States and the leading cause of death due to skin cancer.
