Coffee Consumption May Reduce Risk of Advanced Prostate Cancer

Coffee is a source of many biologically active compounds.  Kathryn M. Wilson, from Harvard Medical School (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues prospectively investigated the association between coffee intake and prostate cancer risk in 50,000 men enrolled in the Health Professionals’ Follow-Up Study. Finding that coffee impacted insulin and glucose metabolism, as well as sex hormone levels -- all of which may have a role in prostate cancer, the team found that the men who drank the most coffee were at 60% lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer, as compared to men who did not drink coffee at all.  While the researchers did not determine which compounds in coffee were responsible for this association, they speculate that caffeine was not the key factor.