Association between tea consumption and risk of cancer

Tea is a commonly consumed beverage. Some think that tea may prevent the occurrence of cancer through antioxidation, growth inhibition and apoptosis induction. However, the association between tea consumption and cancer risk remains controversial based on evidence from human studies.

According to a recent study from European Journal of Epidemiology to find out whether tea consumption was associated with the incidence of all cancers especially the six leading types of cancer (lung cancer, stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, female breast cancer and cervix uteri cancer) among 455,981 Chinese participants aged 30–79 years,  it was found that when restricting analyses to non-smokers and non-excessive alcohol consumers, tea consumption was not associated with all cancers, lung cancer, colorectal cancer and liver cancer, yet might be associated with increased risk of stomach cancer probably because the caffeine in tea could stimulate secretion of gastric acid. All cancer risk increased with the amount of tobacco smoked or alcohol consumed. Their findings suggest tea consumption may not provide preventive effect against cancer incidence.