Sponsored By

Drinking coffee or tea linked to lower risk of head and neck cancerDrinking coffee or tea linked to lower risk of head and neck cancer

Coffee and tea consumption may be linked with a lower risk of developing head and neck cancer, including cancers of the mouth and throat, a new analysis suggests.

Kirstin Knight, Senior Content Editor

January 15, 2025

3 Min Read
Drinking coffee or tea linked to lower risk of head and neck cancer
© AdobeStock/JodieWang

Researchers examined data from 14 studies associated with the International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology consortium, a global collaboration of research groups, in which study participants were questioned on their consumption of caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated coffee, and tea.

They pooled information on 9,548 patients with head and neck cancer and 15,783 controls without cancer, and found that individuals who drank more than four cups of caffeinated coffee daily had a 17% lower risk of head and neck cancer than non-coffee drinkers.

They also had a 30% lower risk of cancer of the oral cavity and a 22% lower risk of throat cancer according to the study, which was published in the journal Cancer.

Head and neck cancer: Rates rising in low- and middle-income countries

Head and neck cancer is the seventh most common cancer worldwide. Rates are rising in low- and middle-income countries, with a disproportionate corresponding health burden.

While some studies have identified inverse associations between coffee consumption and the risk of oral cavity and pharyngeal cancers, findings have been inconsistent.

The new analysis found that drinking three to four cups of caffeinated coffee was linked with a 41% lower risk of developing hypopharyngeal cancer (a type of cancer at the bottom of the throat). Drinking decaffeinated coffee was associated with 25% lower odds of oral cavity cancer, while drinking tea was linked with 29% lower odds of hypopharyngeal cancer.

Drinking one cup or fewer of tea daily was linked with a 9% lower risk of head and neck cancer overall and a 27% lower risk of hypopharyngeal cancer, while drinking more than one cup was associated with 38% higher odds of laryngeal cancer.

“While there has been prior research on coffee and tea consumption and reduced risk of cancer, this study highlighted their varying effects with different sub-sites of head and neck cancer, including the observation that even decaffeinated coffee had some positive impact,” said senior author Yuan-Chin Amy Lee, of Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah School of Medicine.

“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.”

‘More work needed’ before advice or recommendations can be made

However, some commentators urged against reading too much into the findings. 

Dr Ben O’Leary, clinician scientist at London’s Institute of Cancer Research and deputy director of The International Centre for Recurrent Head and Neck Cancer at The Royal Marsden Hospital, said: “Studies like this look at very large groups of people to see if there are differences between people who developed a particular type of cancer and people who didn’t.

“They can be useful to explore ideas about personal characteristics or lifestyle choices that might be related to cancer, but it is very difficult and usually impossible to fully disentangle why you see the associations that you do.

“As the investigators highlight, more work would be needed to achieve a more detailed understanding. This would be needed before any advice or recommendations could be made.”

Others drew attention to limitations of the research methodology.

Tom Sanders, professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, said: “An important limitation is that this review is based on observational studies and not randomised controlled trials. So, we cannot say from this study that drinking these beverages will lower risk of these cancers.

“In observational studies, it is very difficult to totally eliminate confounding effects, for example, of tobacco and alcohol from the statistical analyses. Consequently, people who drink a lot of coffee and tea may be more likely to avoid other harmful behaviours such as drinking alcohol and using tobacco and so may be at a lower risk of these cancers for other reasons.”

However, he added: “The findings may be reassuring for coffee and ordinary tea drinkers because some previous studies have suggested that drinking certain hot beverages, particularly the South American herbal tea mate, is associated with a slightly increased risk of oral and throat cancer.”

About the Author

Kirstin Knight

Senior Content Editor, Informa Markets

Kirstin Knight is Senior Content Editor for the Food Ingredients portfolio, with a particular focus on Vitafoods Insights. An experienced journalist with a background in news writing and production, she previously worked in the UK press for titles including the i newspaper, inews.co.uk and Metro.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
Get your dose of nutrition science, health ingredient innovations, and nutraceutical R&D!