GOYANG, South Korea—Coffee-loving men can drink up without fear of an increased risk of prostate cancer, according to recent research from South Korea. After reviewing case-control and cohort studies, researchers led by Dr. Chang-Hae Park, of the National Cancer Center in Goyang found no evidence to support a harmful effect of coffee consumption on prostate cancer risk (10.1111/j.1464-410X.2010.09493.x).
The team searched PubMed, EMBASE and the bibliographies of relevant articles in August 2009. Two evaluators independently reviewed and selected articles based on predetermined selection criteria. Twelve epidemiological studies (eight case-control studies and four cohort studies) were included in the final analysis.
When the researchers separated the types of studies, cohort versus case-control, they found differing results. In subgroup meta-analyses of the case-control studies, they found a significant harmful association between coffee consumption and prostate cancer risk in seven of the eight studies. However, they found no significant association in four cohort studies.
Because the researchers gave more weight to the cohort studies because “a cohort study gives a higher level of evidence than a case-control study,” they concluded the data show coffee does not increase the risk of prostate cancer.
In a meta-analysis of all included studies, when compared with the lowest level of coffee consumption, the overall relative risk (RR) of prostate cancer for the highest level of coffee consumption was 1.16, which does not suggest a significant association.