Prevent Breast Cancer Recurrence with Coffee

Although it has been treated and declared cured, but cancer cells can grow back. To prevent recurrence, the patient would need to live a healthy lifestyle, such as regular exercise, avoiding trigger foods cancer, and reduce stress.

A new study says that regular coffee drinking can prevent breast cancer recurrence. The researchers say, such benefits can be obtained by diligent drinking two cups of coffee every day.

Researchers from Lund University in Sweden believe that coffee may increase the effects of the drug. They analyzed 600 breast cancer patients in southern Sweden for more than five years. About 300 of the participants taking tamoxifen, a drug commonly prescribed after breast cancer surgery.

Tamoxifen is an anti-estrogen drug that is widely used to treat breast cancer. Breast cancer cells generally rely on female hormone estrogen to grow.

Maria Simonsson, researchers from Lund University say, patients taking the drug with two or more cups of coffee per day, less likely to report cancer recurrence. The results were compared with those who did not drink coffee, but taking the drugs.

"What about coffee interacts with the drug are still unknown. Yet no theory that says that coffee can activate tamoxifen and make it more effective," said Simonsson.

The researchers previously linking coffee consumption with a reduced risk of certain types of breast cancer. Caffeine has also been shown that the effect can inhibit cancer cell growth.

Helena Jernstrvm, professor of experimental oncology at Lund University added that he and his team wanted to know more about how lifestyle can affect the treatment of breast cancer.

Nevertheless, this study is not the first study to show an association of coffee with cancer treatment. Researchers from Harvard Medical School has found that women who drank three or more cups of coffee per day had a 20 percent lower risk of developing skin cancer than those who drank less than one cup per month.