LONDON:

A report published in the latest issue of the Journal of Hepatology indicates that drinking a cup of coffee or more every day might protect people from liver cancer. Liver cancer is a disease in which malignant cells are found in the tissues of the liver.

Researchers in Milan, Italy, looked at 10 studies on coffee and liver cancer. The studies covered 2,260 people with liver cancer and nearly 240,000 without. Participants from Greece, Italy and Japan reported their coffee-drinking habits. Some of the studies defined high coffee consumption as three or more daily cups. Others set the bar lower, at more than one daily cup.

The data showed that coffee drinkers were 41 per cent less likely to have been diagnosed with liver cancer than people who don’t drink coffee, reported the online edition of health magazine WebMD.

For every daily cup of coffee people drank, their odds of having been diagnosed with liver cancer dropped by 23 per cent compared with people who never drink coffee, the report said.

People who drank a lot of coffee were 55 per cent less likely to have been diagnosed with liver cancer than those who didn’t drink any coffee.