A new observational study of more than 77,000 postmenopausal women found no association between coffee consumption and overall invasive breast cancer risk or subtype-specific breast cancer risk.
Lusine Yaghjyan, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the UF department of epidemiology, was the lead author of the study, which also examined potential interactions of coffee and caffeine with postmenopausal hormone use. The findings were published recently in the European Journal of Nutrition.
The researchers assessed eligible women from the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study cohort, a prospective study that included 93,676 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 79 years who were enrolled at 40 clinical centers nationwide from September 1993 to December 1998.
The team found no interactions between coffee or caffeine consumption and postmenopausal hormone use. Although the researchers found no associations between coffee and breast cancer risk, they observed a weak association of caffeine consumption with overall breast cancer risk.
Studies on the association of coffee and caffeine with breast cancer risk have been inconsistent, the authors noted, making the current study an important addition to the limited evidence base on the topic.
