Coffee consumption and breast cancer: a case-control study in women

Objective: The aim of this work was to evaluate the association between the consumption of breakfast and the type of foods contained and breast cancer, in women. Design: A case-control study with 250 consecutive, newly diagnosed breast cancer female patients (56±12 years) and 250, one-to-one age-matched controls. A standardized validated food frequency questionnaire, including 86 questions, and assessing various socio-demographic, clinical, lifestyle and dietary characteristics was applied through face-to-face interviews. Data on frequency of breakfast meal consumption and the type of food contained therein (coffee, milk, juice, tea, cereal, fruit, and margarine-jam) were also recorded. Overall dietary habits were assessed through the level of adherence to the Mediterranean diet using the MedDietScore (theoretical range0-55). Results: Consumption of coffee at breakfast was associated with 43% lower odds of having breast cancer (OR: 0.54, 95% CI 0.35, 0.84), after various adjustments made. Consumption of milk, juice, tea, cereal, fruit, and margarine-jam at breakfast was not significantly associated with the outcome when the same adjustments were made. Conclusions: This work suggested that consumption of coffee at breakfast was consistently associated with lower odds of breast cancer.