Coffee may help cut prostate cancer risk

BOSTON, May 17 (UPI) -- Men who drink a lot of coffee over a long period of time may reduce their risk of the aggressive forms of prostate cancer, U.S. researchers say.

Study co-author Lorelei Mucci, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues said men who drank one to three cups of coffee per day lowered their risk of prostate cancer by 13 percent, ABC-TV News reported.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, also found men who drank six or more cups of coffee per day over some 20 years were 60 percent less likely to develop the more aggressive forms of prostate cancer.

It made no difference if the men drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee, Mucci said.

Mucci said the researchers are not exactly sure why coffee may be beneficial to men when it comes to prostate cancer, but other studies have shown coffee is one of the strongest antioxidants.