Yet, when more than 60,000 Finns were followed for more than 18 years, there was no difference in colon or rectal cancer between those who drank more than 10 cups a day and those who didn’t drink coffee at all.

Researchers tracked 60,041 Finnish men and women, aged 26 to 74 at enrollment, for an average of 18 years.  None had cancer when they began the study.  During that time there were 538 cases of colon cancer and 234 cases of rectal cancer.

Comparing the group who drank more than 10 cups of coffee a day and those who didn’t drink coffee at all, there was no differencel  in risk for colon or rectal cancer for men, women, or men and women together.

Dr.Siamak Bidel and his team concluded,

In this study, we found no association between coffee consumption and the risk of colorectal, colon and rectal cancer.

SOURCE:  Bidel et al., European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 64, Number 9, September 2010.

We have known for a long time that estrogen can protect against colon cancer and that women who take hormone replacement can also prevent polyps and cancer development. We also have recently seen that women do better than men when younger than 45 years old.

How estrogen can protect is still unclear, However we know that estrogen receptors are expressed in the colon which may be responsible for the estrogen effect. This compound identified in coffee has shown to be estrogenic. These studies are done by Texas AgriLife Research scientists.

We don’t have any data on how much coffee we need to drink to have this effect, but the scientists say the compound, called trigonelline or “trig,” may be a factor in estrogen-dependent breast cancer but beneficial against colon cancer development. These data were published in the Journal of Nutrition.

Dr. Clinton Allred’s lab studies dietary compounds that can mimic the hormone estradiol – the primary hormone in women. His main focus has been to look at how estrogen protects against the development of colon cancer. Estradiol is one of three estrogen hormones.

We have seen data in recent years that modulation of estrogen with soy, which is able to decrease estrogen levels, has an effect on breast cancer and colon cancer, but in opposite ways. Soy can increase breast cancer risk but not the risk of colon cancer, because estrogen can protect against colon cancer.

The data from Dr. Allred show that “trig” is in coffee beans, though in different amounts depending on the variety of coffee bean.

Dr. Allred said,

The more you roast a coffee bean, the less there is. But the most critical aspect is that when you do a water extract of ground coffee, which is basically how you make a cup of coffee. It does in fact come out in the water, so we know it is in a cup of coffee.

We need much more data to better understand what this substance is able to do and what the mechanisms of actions are before we run to Starbucks and order a double latte.

Verna Cox with Sen. Bob Casey in Washington

C3 Advocate Verna Cox was featured in the Philadelphia Daily News yesterday, and there’s a link to her story as well as links to the winning entries in the Get Screened Video Contest.

This week, we also report research showing that the elderly benefit from irinotecan chemotherapy treatments, a potential vaccine for travelers diarrhea, and no link between coffee drinking and colorectal cancer.

Research Reports

• In a large randomized trial comparing various combinations of irinotecan, 5-FU, or Xeloda (capecitabine), elderly colorectal cancer patients treated with irinotecan-based chemotherapy had no more serious side effects than younger patients.  Patients over 70 also benefitted equally from treatment with  similar rates of tumor shrinkage, time until cancer got worse, and overall survival time. Nadine A. Jackson, MD, MPH, from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston published the results of her team’s analysis in Cancer online April 20, 2009.
• A vaccine against traveler’s diarrhea (Campylobacter jejuni) may be possible based on research in mice and monkeys.  Vaccinated against C. jejuni, mice developed strong immune responses and had significantly fewer symptoms when exposed to the bacteria.  Monkeys who were also exposed were completely protected from developing diarrhea.  Besides traveler’s diarrhea, C. jejuni can cause irritable bowel syndrome. Dr. Patricia Guerry, from the Naval Medical Research Center in Maryland, says that a vaccine for humans is “very feasible.”  Her colleagues’ research was published in the March, 2009 issue of Infection and Immunity.
• Reviewing 12 studies prospective studies that followed almost 647,000 people, researchers found no connection between drinking coffee and colorectal cancer.  There was a small decrease in risk for women and colon cancer, particularly for Japanese women.  Youjin Je and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health report their analysis in the April 1, 2009 International Journal of Cancer.

Other Headlines

• Winning videos from the Get Screened Video Contest sponsored by EndColonCancerNow.Org at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center are now online.  Zach Smith of Spokane, WA was the grand-prize winner, awarded $2,500 for Your Choice.  Watch Zack’s video and  those from the four runner-ups. You can also see entries from the 15 finalists.
• C3 advocate Verna Cox’s story was featured in the Philadelphia Daily News and on Philly.com on  April 23, 2009.  Verna discusses her diagnosis and treatment very frankly and what pushed her to become an advocate to prevent others from getting colorectal cancer.  She says, “My strategy is — and it’s spiritual — if I can help somebody as I travel on, then my living will not be in vain.”  Her story is part of the ongoing Beating Cancer section in the Philadelphia newspapers.