Coffee and risk of death from hepatocellular carcinoma in a large cohort study in Japan

Abstract

We examined the relation between coffee drinking and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) mortality in the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk (JACC Study). In total, 110 688 cohort members (46 399 male and 64 289 female subjects) aged 40 -79 years were grouped by coffee intake into three categories: one or more cups per day, less than one cup per day and noncoffee drinkers. Cox proportional hazards model by SAS was used to obtain hazard ratio of HCC mortality for each coffee consumption categories. The hazard ratios were adjusted for age, gender, educational status, history of diabetes and liver diseases, smoking habits and alcohol. The hazard ratio of death due to HCC for drinkers of one and more cups of coffee per day, compared with non-coffee drinkers, was 0.50 (95% confidence interval 0.31 -0.79), and the ratio for drinkers of less than one cup per day was 0.83 (95% confidence interval 0.54 -1.25). Our data confirmed an inverse association between coffee consumption and HCC mortality. (Tabor, 1998). Heavy alcohol consumption (La Vecchia et al, 1988;Tanaka et al, 1992) and dietary aflatoxins (Bulatao-Jayme et al, 1982;Yu et al, 1999) increase the risk of HCC, while diabetes (La Vecchia et al, 1997), smoking (La Vecchia et al, 1988;Yu et al, 1999) and low education level (La Vecchia et al, 1988) are also reported risk factors.Coffee drinking has been inversely related to the risk of liver cirrhosis in several studies (Klatsky and Armstrong, 1992;Klatsky et al, 1993;Corrao et al, 1994Corrao et al, , 2001La Vecchia et al, 1998;Gallus et al, 2002a), although no significant relation was found in two case -control studies from Italy (La Vecchia et al, 1989) and Greek (Kuper et al, 2000). To investigate further an association between coffee drinking and HCC mortality, we analysed data from the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study for Evaluation of Cancer Risk sponsored by Monbusho (JACC Study). SUBJECT AND METHODS SubjectsSubjects were 110 792 cohort members (46 465 males and 64 327 females) aged 40 -79 years from JACC Study, the design of which has been previously described (Ohno et al, 2001). The subjects were followed up from 1988 -1990 until the end of 1999. Residential and survival status was confirmed by searching in roster of residents for moving out or death, and in death certificate for cause and date of death under the permission from the Director-General of Prime Minister's Office.End point for the present study was death from HCC, coded as C22.0 in International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10). Subjects with HCC at baseline or died from HCC within 2 years after registration in the study were excluded from the analysis. Subjects coded C22.9 (hepatic malignancy not otherwise specified) were also excluded from the analysis. The total number of subjects was 110 688 (46 399 males and 64 289 females). The subjects who died of HCC during the observation periods were 287 male and 114 female subjects. Questionnaire and data correctionAfter obtainin...

Coffee and tea consumption and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in Italy

“…32 A Japanese cohort study 15 reported about 70% reduction of HCC risk for subjects who drunk 5 cups/day. This result is supported by a cohort study on mortality due to HCC 18 or liver cirrhosis. 13 However, the great variation of coffee consumption across studies makes the comparison difficult.…”

“…Recently, increasing evidence has emerged on the relation between coffee drinking and risk of cirrhosis [12][13][14] and HCC. [15][16][17][18] A consistent inverse association with coffee consumption against HCC was found in cohort 15,[17][18][19] and case-control studies. 16,20,21 A few studies have investigated tea consumption in relation to HCC incidence and mortality, 14,15,19,22 and their results were inconclusive.…”

Southern Europe as an example of interaction between various environmental factors: a systematic review of the epidemiologic evidence

“…Two other case-control studies performed in Italy and Greece found a protective effect of coffee drinking on HCC risk (Gallus et al, 2002a), showing an odds ratio of 0.7 for drinkers of three or more cups of coffee per day. Confirmation of these results comes from two population-based Japanese cohort studies, which observed a reduced risk of developing HCC for coffee drinking after controlling for alcohol drinking, tobacco smoking and other confounders (Inoue et al, 2005;Kurozawa et al, 2005).…”

Liver cancer risk, coffee, and hepatitis C virus infection: a nested case–control study in Japan

“…The inverse associations between coffee consumption and the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have recently been reported not only from case -control studies (Gallus et al, 2002;Gelatti et al, 2005;Ohfuji et al, 2006;Montella et al, 2007;Tanaka et al, 2007) but also from Japanese cohort studies (Inoue et al, 2005;Kurozawa et al, 2005;Shimazu et al, 2005). Cohort studies are superior to case -control studies in avoiding recall and selection bias (Ohfuji et al, 2006).…”

“…Cohort studies are superior to case -control studies in avoiding recall and selection bias (Ohfuji et al, 2006). Previous prospective studies (Inoue et al, 2005;Kurozawa et al, 2005;Shimazu et al, 2005), however, did not consider the infection status of hepatitis C virus (HCV) at baseline. As HCV is the major cause of HCC in Japan and certain other countries (Heathcote, 2004), it would be important if protective factors against HCC could be found among the HCVpositive population.…”