Pooled analysis of case-control studies of the association of coffee and tea consumption with the risk of head and neck cancer

Pooled analysis of individual participant data from 14 case-control studies from the International Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) Epidemiology Consortium (9548 HNC cases and 15,783 controls) investigated the association of consumption of coffee and tea with the risk of HNC. Compared to non-coffee drinkers, consumers of more than 4 cups of caffeinated coffee daily had lower risk of HNC (OR 0.83; 95% CI 0.69-1.00), oral cavity cancer (0.70; 0.55-0.89), and oropharyngeal cancer (0.78; 0.61-0.99), while drinking 3 or 4 cups daily was inversely associated with hypopharyngeal cancer (0.59; 0.39-0.91). Drinking decaffeinated coffee was inversely associated with oral cavity cancer, while drinking tea was inversely associated with hypopharyngeal cancer (OR 0.71; 95% CI 0.59-0.87) but drinking more than one cup of tea daily was positively associated with laryngeal cancer (1.38; 1.09-1.74). The authors conclude that these findings suggest a reduced HNC risk among coffee and tea drinkers.