A new study by researchers at Vanderbilt University raises seemingly alarming questions about the possible link between coffee and lung cancer.
SurvivorNet analyzes these studies all the time, and no, you shouldn’t necessarily stop the coffee habit. But the details are interesting and Vanderbilt is a highly respected, major cancer center.
Read MoreThe observational nature of the study means that it’s not possible to infer a direct, causal link between coffee and cancer. Also, there is no record of exposure to second hand smoke, which could account for lung cancer risk in people who don’t smoke.
Another way that the results of the study may be skewed is that smoking, tea drinking, and coffee drinking habits were only recorded at the beginning of the study, meaning that if these behaviors changed over time, those changes were not recorded. Lung cancer risk, in this case, may not be as attributable to the habits expressed at the beginning of the study.
Lung Cancer Statistics
There is a stigma against lung cancer patients, even though many of them don't smoke.
Even though lung cancer is most commonly found in smokers, there are a lot of other factors that can contribute to lung cancer diagnoses, including exposure to asbestos. People who have been diagnosed with HIV also have a higher lung cancer risk.
A lot of lung cancers are discovered accidentally, and they usually affect people older than 65. A very small number are diagnosed before the age of 45.
Dr. Brendan Stiles on smoking and lung cancer risk
But smoking is still the number one cause of the most deadly cancer in the world. “In the big picture, the society picture, prevention is often driven by tobacco cessation and by getting rid of the smoking up front that then predisposes to all these other reasons that people get lung cancer,” says Dr. Brendan Stiles, Thoracic Surgeon at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian. “Certainly, we’ve started to do a good job of getting that message out. But we can do better.”
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