Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists . But a new study, which has drawn fire from health experts, suggests that drinking coffee might protect smokers from bladder cancer. Sasco and others said examining the protective effects of coffee's components is an interesting hypothesis, but one that needs further testing before any real confidence can be placed in the theory. At issue is a preliminary research paper, published this week in the London-based Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, which found that bladder cancer was about half as likely to occur in smokers who regularly drank coffee as in smokers who did not. I think it is dangerous to see coffee consumption as a preventive habit.
Smoking is recognized as the most important cause of bladder cancer.
Experts estimate that about 50 percent of these cancers in men and 30 percent in women are due to smoking. Cigarette use increases the risk for bladder cancer by two to five times and, when smokers quit, their risk declines in two to four years, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. The Spanish study involved 497 people with bladder cancer who were compared with 1,100 people without the disease. They were all asked about their smoking and coffee-drinking habits. Those who drank less than two cups of coffee a week were classified as non-coffee drinkers.