A study from Japan found no association between drinking green tea and a reduced risk of breast cancer.
Motoki iWasaki, from the National Cancer Center in Tokyo, Japan and colleagues analyzed data from the prospective study based on the Japan Health Center. They looked at almost 54,000 women who have been questioned about their daily intake of tea green. About 12% of women drank less than a cup of green tea per week, and 27% drank five or more cups every day. During the study period, there were 581 new cases of diagnosed breast cancer.
The researchers found that the risk of breast cancer did not differ among women who drank more green tea and women who drank less. The discoveries, published in the latest edition of breast cancer research, aiming the widely maintained notion that drinking green tea is a potential way to reduce the risk of breast cancer.
Iwasaki said there were several strengths for the study design, including the number of women surveyed and the wide variation of participants' tea intake.
"Although in vitro and animal-based studies have suggested that green tea can have beneficial protective effects against breast cancer, the results of human studies have been inconclusive," says Iwasaki in a statement. "Our population-based potential potential cohort study is one of the first to include a wide range of tea inputs; women who drank green tea with less than 1 cup per week for those who drank 10 or more glasses by Day. He found no general association between green tea intake and the risk of breast cancer. Drinking green tea as a drink is unlikely to reduce the risk of breast cancer, regardless of the type of green tea and number of cups. "
Diet Green Tea - Green Tea Doesn't Prevent Breast Cancer, Study Finds
Animal studies have suggested that polyphenols and antioxidants found in green tea can be protective against cancer, including breast cancer. A study presented in 2008 had suggested that the antioxidant epigalocatechin-3-gallate, also known as EGCG and is abundant in green tea, could slow breast tumor growth in rats. A more recent study published this year in biomed central cancer also suggested that EGCG found in green tea decreased the growth of the breast cancer cell in rats. However, these types of results were not observed in people.
Compared to Western countries, breast cancer rates are smaller in many Asian countries where green tea is a popular daily drink. Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among American women. According to the CDC, the 2006 data shows that 191.410 women were diagnosed with breast cancer that year and 40,820 women died of the disease.
