Do you drink your coffee ‘extra hot’? It could be putting you at risk of deadly oesophageal cancer, major study finds
Drinking ‘extra hot’ tea and coffee could significantly increase the risk of developing deadly oesophageal cancer, a major study suggests.
Scientists found people who regularly consumed drinks at above 65C were three times more likely to develop the disease than those who drank them at slightly cooler temperatures.
Meanwhile, consuming more than six hot drinks a day was linked to a 71 per cent higher risk of the cancer compared with drinking none – regardless of temperature.
The team, from the University of Oxford, specifically linked the beverages, consumed by millions of Britons every day, to oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma – one of the most aggressive forms of the disease which accounts for more than 3,000 new cases each year in the UK.
Studies suggest that around a fifth of oesophageal cancer patients are still alive five years after diagnosis, in part because the disease is often discovered at a late stage.
The researchers estimated that around 14 per cent of cases diagnosed in Britain each year could be prevented if people allowed hot drinks to cool before consuming them.
Experts said the findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that regularly drinking very hot beverages may contribute to the development of oesophageal cancer.
It’s believed the heat from the beverages damages the cells at the top of the food pipe, where the cancer is found.
Drinking ‘extra hot’ tea and coffee could significantly increase your risk of deadly oesophageal cancer , a major study suggests
‘While the risk of being diagnosed with this cancer remains relatively low in the UK, this research does add to the evidence that drinking very hot drinks could increase the risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma,’ said Fiona Osgun, head of health information at Cancer Research UK, which funded the study.
‘There is however a simple step people can take – let a cuppa cool down a little before taking a sip.’
The Oxford University scientists analysed data from almost 980,000 UK adults who were followed for more than a decade.
Participants reported how hot they preferred their drinks – ‘warm’, ‘hot’ or ‘very hot’ – and how many they consumed each day.
The researchers then compared this with cancer diagnoses, taking into account other risk factors such as smoking, alcohol and obesity.
During the study, 2,348 people developed oesophageal cancer, including 1,045 cases of SCC.
Those who preferred ‘hot’ drinks were 1.7 times more likely to develop SCC than those who drank them ‘warm’, while the risk was more than three times higher among those who preferred them ‘very hot’.
No increased risk was seen for adenocarcinoma, the other main type of oesophageal cancer.
Importantly, the scientists did not measure the actual temperature of participants’ drinks.
But previous research has typically described drinks at around 70C as very hot, while the International Agency for Research on Cancer considers beverages above 65C ‘probably carcinogenic’.
Researchers said allowing drinks to cool could therefore help prevent some cases of the disease.
Dr Keren Papier, lead researcher at Oxford Population Health, said: ‘What was less clear was whether this also applied to the temperatures at which hot drinks are usually consumed in Western populations.
‘This is now the largest study to look at that question in a UK population. More research is now needed to identify the exact drink temperatures linked to this increased risk.’
Around 9,500 people are diagnosed with oesophageal cancer each year in the UK and 7,900 die from the disease.
It is often diagnosed late because early symptoms can be mistaken for problems such as indigestion.
Smoking, obesity and alcohol are also major risk factors.
Ms Osgun said the ‘most important’ ways to reduce the risk remained ‘not smoking and cutting down on alcohol’.
Professor Muy-Teck Teh, an expert in molecular oral oncology at Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved in the study, also urged caution over the findings.
He said people’s perception of how hot a drink is can vary and stressed the study showed a link – but could not prove hot drinks directly cause cancer.
