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Colon cancer patients who were heavy coffee drinkers had a far lower risk of dying or having their cancer return than those who did not drink coffee, with significant benefits starting at two to three cups a day, a new study found. Patients who drank four cups of caffeinated coffee or more a day had half the rate of recurrence or death than noncoffee drinkers.
一項新研究發現，與不喝咖啡的結腸癌患者相比，大量飲用咖啡的患者癌癥復發或死亡的風險較低，而且從每天飲用咖啡兩到三杯開始這種效益就十分顯著。每天至少飲用四杯含咖啡因咖啡的患者的癌癥復發或死亡率只有不喝咖啡者的一半。
But, the researchers caution, cancer patients should not start ordering extra tall coffees. The study, the first to report such findings, does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between coffee drinking and a lower risk of colon cancer recurrence. As other experts note, there may be differences between heavy coffee drinkers and abstainers that the research was not able to account for.
不過，研究人員警告說，癌癥患者不應因此就開始點超大杯的咖啡。該研究是對此類發現的首次報道，但未能證明飲用咖啡與較低的結腸癌復發風險之間的因果關系。正如其他專家所指出的那樣，在大量飲用咖啡者與不喝咖啡者之間可能存在著該研究沒有考慮到的差異。
In recent years, many studies have pointed to coffee's health benefits, suggesting coffee may protect against Type 2 diabetes, reduce overall deaths and perhaps even help protect against dementia. Other studies have suggested coffee may reduce the risks of certain cancers, including colon cancer. The benefits are generally attributed to coffee's antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
近年來，許多研究都指出咖啡具有健康效益，提出咖啡或可預防2型糖尿病，降低總體死亡率，甚至可能有助于防止癡呆癥的發生。還有其它研究表明，咖啡可能會降低包括結腸癌在內的某些癌癥的風險。這些優點通常都被歸因于咖啡的抗氧化和抗炎特性。
But as with many studies about diet, proving a link between coffee consumption and protection against cancer recurrence is difficult.
然而，關于飲食的研究雖多，要證實飲用咖啡與預防癌癥復發之間的關聯卻十分困難。
"Think about it: People who drink a lot of coffee tend to be high stress, high pressure, intense and compulsive," said Dr. Alfred Neugut, a professor of cancer research, medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University and a director of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's Cancer Prevention Center. "If they have cancer, they're going to be more obsessive about following all the rules and doing all the things they're supposed to do. So it may be that coffee itself is playing a physiological role, but it may also be a surrogate marker for you being a compulsive health-conscious good behaver."
"想想看：大量喝咖啡的人往往壓力比較大、容易緊張或有強迫傾向，"美國哥倫比亞大學的癌癥研究、醫學和流行病學教授，紐約長老會醫院癌癥防治中心的主任艾爾弗雷德·紐各特博士說。"如果他們患了癌癥，肯定會更嚴格地遵循所有的規則，去做所有他們應該做的事情。因此，或許確實是咖啡本身發揮了什么生理作用，但也有可能愛喝咖啡只是特別注重健康行為的人們的一個替代性標識。"
Dr. Charles S. Fuchs, the director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who led the research, acknowledged the limitations of his study and called for interventional studies to replicate and confirm the findings.
該研究的負責人，波士頓市丹娜法伯癌癥研究院胃腸道癌癥中心的查爾斯·S·富克斯博士承認自己的研究存在局限性，并呼吁進行干預性研究以重現和證實這些結果。
"No one has ever done this before in colon cancer patients. It does require confirmation," he said. Patients should not start drinking coffee based on this study, but, "If you're a coffee drinker and enjoy your coffee, stick with it," he said. "If a patient says, 'Well I hate coffee,' I'd say there are other things you can do, like avoid obesity, exercise regularly and follow a balanced diet."
他說："此前尚無人在結腸癌患者中進行過這樣的研究。它確實需要經過確認。"富克斯博士還說，患者不宜因為這項研究就開始飲用咖啡，但是，"如果你本身就喝咖啡而且喜歡喝，不妨保持下去。"如果有患者說：'我討厭咖啡'，那我就會回答：還有很多其它的事情可以做，比方說避免肥胖、經常鍛煉、均衡飲食等等。"
The study, published Monday in The Journal of Clinical Oncology, followed 953 patients with Stage 3 colon cancer who had been treated with surgery and chemotherapy.
這項研究發表在8月17日的《臨床腫瘤學雜志》上，共計隨訪了953名曾接受手術和化療的3期結腸癌患者。
