Just one cup of green tea per day cuts ovarian cancer risk in half

A short communication published in the March, 2008 issue of the American Association for Cancer Research journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention reported the outcome of a study conducted by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington in Seattle which found that women who drank one or more cups per day of green tea experienced a 54 percent reduction in the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer.

Because the disease is difficult to detect in its early, treatable stages, and a reliable screening test is still not available to the public, an effective means of preventing the disease “remains the only feasible approach to reduce ovarian cancer mortality,” according to the authors.

Mary Anne Rossing and her colleagues set out to evaluate the relationship between caffeine-containing beverages and ovarian cancer risk by comparing 781 women diagnosed with a primary invasive or borderline epithelial ovarian cancer between 2002 and 2005, and 1,263 women without the disease. Interviews with the participants obtained demographic and lifestyle characteristics, medical, family and reproductive history, and beverage consumption data five years prior to ovarian cancer diagnosis (or prior to an assigned reference date for the control subjects). Caffeine-containing drinks were reported as brewed coffee, instant coffee, espresso or espresso drinks, green tea, black tea, colas and root beer, diet colas and diet root beer, and caffeinated soft drinks. Decaffeinated beverages were reported separately. Continue Reading