Hot beverages and cancer risk study

A University of Oxford study of nearly 1 million UK adults -- the largest investigation of its kind, combining participants from the Million Women Study (followed an average 14 years) and the UK Biobank (followed 11 years) -- found that people who reported drinking beverages 'very hot' had roughly three times the risk of developing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) compared to those who drank beverages warm, while those who drank 'hot' beverages had about 1.7 times the risk; drinking six or more hot beverages daily was linked to a 71% higher risk. The association did not hold for esophageal adenocarcinoma, a different and more common form of esophageal cancer. Lead author Keren Papier, a nutritional epidemiologist at Oxford, estimated that if the association reflects true causation, about 14% of SCC cases could be prevented if people drank their beverages hot rather than very hot; the study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, relied on self-reported rather than directly measured drink temperatures, a limitation the authors acknowledged.

Dr. Aaron Sasson, chief of surgical oncology at Stony Brook Cancer Center, who was not involved in the study, said the findings were biologically plausible, comparing repeated exposure to very hot liquids to repeated burns that raise skin cancer risk in the same location, though he noted SCC remains rare in the US -- where about 85% of esophageal cancers are adenocarcinomas -- with a lifetime SCC risk below 1%. Both Papier and Sasson said established risk factors like smoking, heavy alcohol use, acid reflux and obesity remain far more significant than drink temperature, and that the findings do not mean people need to stop drinking coffee or tea, only let beverages cool somewhat before drinking.