Tea and Coffee Thwart Brain Tumor Risk

Recent studies have suggested that total coffee and tea consumption may inversely associate with risk of glioma, tumors that originate in the brain’s supportive tissue, and data exists that suggests that caffeine may slow the invasive growth of glioblastoma tumors, a form of aggressive primary brain cancer.  Dominique S. Michaud, from Imperial College (United Kingdom), and colleagues studied the association between coffee, tea, or caffeinated beverages and glioma risk, engaging data collected from over half a million people enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study.  The researchers found that daily consumption of more than 100 milliliters (mL; 3.4 ounces)  of tea or coffee significantly reduced glioma risk (as compared consuming less than 100 ml per day).  Concluding that: “In this large cohort study, we observed an inverse association between total coffee and tea consumption and risk of glioma that was consistent with the findings of a recent study,” the team suggests that: “These findings, if further replicated in other studies, may provide new avenues of research on gliomas.”