Coffee and Pancreatic Cancer: Does it Increase Your Risk

Whether increased consumption of coffee increases your risk of pancreatic cancer is not known.

Because of the antioxidants, coffee is said to have favorable effects and may be less risky as a causative agent in pancreatic cancer than most processed foods and meat.

Coffee is among the most consumed beverages, with 1.1 kg of consumption per person annually on average worldwide and 4.5 kg in industrialized countries.

Recent research has linked coffee consumption to a lower chance of developing a number of chronic conditions, which may include type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, as well as liver disease.

Among these associations, the one that people are most interested in finding out about is the risk of pancreatic cancer and coffee intake.

 Is there a connection between coffee and pancreatic cancer?

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and treatment-resistant malignancies in people.

Since there is no screening technique to detect pancreatic cancer early and no curative treatment to prolong lives, primary prevention appears to be the most important strategy for reducing death from the disease.

Over the past 40 years, a large number of epidemiologic studies have looked at the connection between coffee consumption and the development of pancreatic cancer.

In epidemiological research, it has been demonstrated that coffee consumption—a significant and regular dietary exposure in many different cultures throughout the world—is linked to pancreatic cancer.

However, a thorough, current assessment of the vast amount of epidemiologic information is lacking. [ref]

Anticarcinogenic effects of coffee on pancreatic cancer

Consuming coffee may have an anticarcinogenic impact on certain organs. For instance, drinking coffee has a direct impact on the colon’s production of neutral sterols, bile acids, and cholesterol as well as an increase in colonic motility, which can lessen the exposure of the epithelium to carcinogens.

Caffeine, a purine alkaloid, cafestol, kahweol, and chlorogenic acid are the components in coffee that have drawn attention.

In animal studies, the active components of coffee oil, cafestol, and kahweol reduce cancer and mutagenesis.

Diterpenes, which are present in coffee, lessen the genotoxicity of carcinogens and the production of DNA adducts.

Antioxidants chlorogenic acid and caffeine have been shown to reduce DNA methylation.

The effects of caffeine on cell cycle, proliferation, and apoptosis suggest that it is protective in a more subtle way.

Is coffee ‘OK’ for pancreatic cancer?

Research on coffee and pancreatic cancer has been undertaken during the past 20 years as a result of an early warning that consuming coffee was linked to an elevated risk of the disease in the early 1980s.

Since several studies have found little to no association between caffeine consumption and pancreatic risk it is only logical to believe that this holds no risk for pancreatic cancer. [ref]

It is believed that coffee drinking has a consistent protective impact on several types of cancer and may lower the risk of pancreatic cancer.

A complex brew of more than a thousand ingredients makes up roasted coffee and many of these ingredients have the potential to change cancer risk via various biological pathways.

Since the use of coffee is known to lower the chances of any cancer, let alone pancreatic cancer, it is anything but bad for your health.

So, as studies have shown that the ingredients found in coffee hold some anticarcinogenic properties, we can safely believe that coffee consumption is in favor of good health.