Coffee and green tea consumption and subsequent risk of acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes in Japan

Abstract

Although coffee and green tea are suggested to reduce the risk of some types of cancers, only a few epidemiological studies have investigated their effect on the risk of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Here, we investigated the association of coffee and green tea consumption and the risk of AML and MDS in a large-scale population-based cohort study in Japan. A total of 95,807 Japanese subjects (45,937 men and 49,870 women; age 40-69 years at baseline) were followed to the end of 2012, for an average of 18 years. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for the association between coffee and green tea consumption at baseline and the risk of AML and MDS were assessed using a Cox proportional hazards model with adjustment for potential confounders. During 1,751.956 person-years, we identified 85 AML cases and 70 MDS cases. Our findings showed no significant association between coffee consumption and the risk of AML, or between green tea consumption and the risk of AML or MDS. In contrast, we observed a decreasing dose-response relationship between coffee consumption and the risk of MDS among men (almost none: reference, 1-4 times/week: HR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.43-1.62; ≥1cups/day: HR = 0.47, 0.22-0.99, p for trend = 0.049). Stratified analysis by smoking status suggested that the observed relative risk for AML and MDS of coffee drinkers relative to non-coffee drinkers might be due to residual confounding by smoking. These findings deserve further investigation in future studies.

Green tea consumption and risk of hematologic neoplasms: the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk (JACC Study)

“…Another cohort study of 95,807 Japanese (JPHC Study) with 85 incident acute myeloid leukemias and 70 incident myelodysplastic syndromes did not find any associations between green tea consumption and any of the outcomes. [8]. Unlike our study, neither the Ohsaki Study [7] nor the JPHC Study [8] distinguished never green tea drinkers from the <1 cup/day category, and this, as well as the lower statistical power, may be a major reason why those studies did not detect an association between green tea consumption and risk of acute myeloid leukemias.…”

“…However, the results obtained after the exclusion of the death certificate-only incident cases did not largely alter the overall results. Moreover, the accuracy of our cancer registry is the highest when compared with those of previous reports [7,8]. Eighth, the number of cases of hematologic neoplasms in this cohort was modest.…”

“…A previous Japanese cohort study showed that a higher frequency of green tea consumption was associated with a lower risk of hematologic neoplasms [7]. Meanwhile, another Japanese cohort study found no significant association between green tea consumption and the risk of acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes [8]. Case-control studies conducted in Taiwan [9] and China [10] reported that high intake of green tea was associated with lower risk of leukemias such as myeloid leukemia.…”

Epigallocatechin-3-gallate inhibits the growth and increases the apoptosis of human thyroid carcinoma cells through suppression of EGFR/RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK signaling pathway

“…Green tea is a popular beverage and has received considerable attention worldwide because of its beneficial effects on human health [11–13]. The health benefits of green tea are mainly attributed to catechins, including catechin, epicatechin, epigallocatechin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), and epicatechin-3-gallate [14, 15].…”

Cardiovascular Disease and Nutrition

“…Similar to green tea, wine and coffee are two beverages containing a wide variety of phytochemical substances that have been associated with a protective effect against heart disease. Although these compounds, mostly polyphenols, have been intensively studied over the past two decades, the main effects of wine (or alcoholic beverages in general) and coffee consumption continue to be attributed to ethanol and caffeine, respectively [8]. Recent reviews indicate that beer and especially red wine [7,8] are associated with a greater reduction in the risk of CVD due to its high polyphenol content [9,10].…”