(Photo : Wikipedia) Location of endometrial cancer


It seems coffee had more added benefits than helping fight type 2 diabetes and dementia.



New research shows a daily cup of coffee might also reduce a woman's risk of endometrial cancer in women.



Researchers from the Imperial College London in England evaluated the dietary habits of more than 2,800 women diagnosed with cancer of the endometrium, the lining of the uterus, based on data in two ongoing studies involving 456,000 women.



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Women who drank some four cups daily had an 18 percent lower risk of getting endometrial cancer compared to women who drank less than a cup a day, revealed the study.



The researchers said they did find a link, but not a cause-and-effect relationship, between coffee drinking and lower risk of endometrial cancer. Researchers can't say for sure why coffee may lower the cancer risk.



One possibility they're looking into is that coffee reduces estrogen levels in the body, changing the balance of hormones. The risk of endometrial cancer increases if the balance between estrogen and progesterone is more pronounced toward estrogen.



The study, however, didn't differentiate between regular coffee and decaf so researchers couldn't comment on whether one is better than the other.



"We were not surprised by the results that a high versus low intake of coffee was associated with a reduced risk for endometrial cancer, because they were consistent with what has been observed in previous studies," said study leader Melissa Merritt, a research fellow in cancer epidemiology at Imperial College London.



"We used similar methods to investigate the association between coffee intake and endometrial cancer as previous studies," she said. "This is important so we can compare results across different studies."



Endometrial cancer is a gynecological cancer is the result of the abnormal growth of cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. The first sign is most often vaginal bleeding not associated with a menstrual period. Endometrial cancer is most common after menopause.



Other risk factors include being overweight and having an early start to periods (before age 12) and a late menopause. The average age of menopause in the United States is 51.

