多喝咖啡有助於提高結腸癌患者的存活率大綱
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症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症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，癌症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係。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着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，甚至可能有助於防止癡呆症的發生。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症的風險。這些優點通常都被歸因於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，關於飲食的研究雖多，要證實飲用咖啡與預防癌症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(Columbia University)的癌症研究、醫學和流行病學教授，紐約長老會醫院(NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital)癌症防治中心(Cancer Prevention Center)的主任艾爾弗雷德·紐各特(Alfred Neugut)博士說。“如果他們患了癌症，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麼生理作用，但也有可能愛喝咖啡只是特別注重健康行爲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症研究院(Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)胃腸道癌症中心(Gastrointestinal Cancer Center)的查爾斯·S·富克斯(Charles S. Fuchs)博士承認自己的研究存在侷限性，並呼籲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，患者不宜因爲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、經常鍛鍊、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《臨牀腫瘤學雜誌》(The Journal of Clinical Oncology)上，共計隨訪了953名曾接受手術和化療的3期結腸癌患者。
The patients, recruited from 1999 to 2001, were asked to fill out detailed dietary pattern questionnaires about food intake and lifestyle, first during chemotherapy and again six months later. The questionnaires asked about their intake of caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee, herbal and nonherbal tea, caffeinated soft drinks and chocolate.
研究人員於1999年至2001年期間招募了這些患者，並要求他們在化療期間和六個月後分別填寫了非常詳細的關於飲食和生活方式的膳食結構調查問卷。問卷詢問了他們飲用含咖啡因或無咖啡因咖啡、草藥茶和不含草藥的茶、含咖啡因的軟飲料以及食用巧克力的情況。
The researchers adjusted the findings to control for differences such as gender, age, smoking, diet, caloric intake, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and alcohol, weight and physical activity. They did not, however, adjust for use of aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, even though their earlier work suggests such drugs may be protective against colon cancer recurrence. Dr. Fuchs said their previous research had not shown any association between coffee drinking and aspirin use.
研究人員對初步結果進行了校正，以控制性別、年齡、吸菸、飲食、熱量攝入、飲用含糖飲料和酒、體重和體育活動等差異。不過，他們並沒有對阿司匹林和其它非甾體類抗炎藥的使用情況進行校正，儘管他們此前的工作表明，這些藥物或可預防結腸癌復發。富克斯博士稱，他們之前的研究並未發現飲用咖啡與使用阿司匹林之間有任何關聯。
They determined that patients who had reported drinking four or more cups of caffeinated coffee a day were 52 percent less likely to have had a recurrence of cancer or to have died than those who had never drank coffee, while those who drank two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day were 31 percent less likely than nondrinkers to have had a recurrence or to have died. Sweetened coffee beverages did not count.
他們的這項研究發現，較之從不飲用咖啡者，報告自己每天至少飲用四杯含咖啡因咖啡的患者癌症復發或死亡的可能性低了52%，而每天飲用兩到三杯含咖啡因咖啡的患者癌症復發或死亡的可能性低了31%。上述數據未計入含糖咖啡飲料。
The researchers’ hypothesis is that the factors that increase risk for Type 2 diabetes, such as obesity, a sedentary lifestyle and high insulin levels, also drive colon cancer, Dr. Fuchs said. And many studies have shown that coffee consumption is associated with a lower risk for Type 2 diabetes, a chronic illness that may increase the risk of colon cancer.
富克斯博士表示，他們研究人員的假設是，令2型糖尿病的風險增加的因素，如肥胖，久坐不動的生活方式和偏高的胰島素水平等，也促發結腸癌。許多研究已經表明，飲用咖啡與較低的2型糖尿病風險相關，而2型糖尿病正是一種可能增加患結腸癌風險的慢性疾病。
“We believe that activating the energy pathways that contribute to heart disease and diabetes is also relevant for the proliferation of cancer cells,” Dr. Fuchs said, while also stressing that more research was needed.
富克斯博士說：“我們認爲，能促發心臟病和糖尿病的能量轉換途徑與癌細胞的增殖也有關。”但他同時強調仍需要進行更多的研究。
The analysis determined the lowered risk associated with coffee was entirely because of the caffeine. One hypothesis is that caffeine increases the body’s sensitivity to insulin, so it requires less of the hormone. That, in turn, may reduce inflammation, which is a risk factor for diabetes and cancer.
這項分析確定了與咖啡相關的風險降低完全是咖啡因的功勞。一個假設是，咖啡因可增加人體對胰島素的敏感性，減少需要的激素量。這相應地也會減少炎症——糖尿病和癌症的風險因素之一。
While there are inevitably gaps in these kinds of studies, the new research is “one piece of a big puzzle,” said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the deputy chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society, adding that there is tremendous concern about the role obesity and metabolic factors may play in promoting cancer.
美國癌症協會(American Cancer Society)的副首席醫務官萊恩·利希滕費爾德(Len Lichtenfeld)博士表示，雖然此類研究中不可避免地還有着不少缺點，但這項新的研究畢竟爲“解開大謎團提供了一條新的線索，他還說，人們對肥胖和代謝因素可能存在的促癌作用極其關注。
“This is an example of trying to look at those types of questions — about what the metabolic relationships are, and what might influence those metabolic relationships — in a positive way.”
“這是人們試圖以積極的方式，探討代謝關係、以及這些代謝關係可能造成的影響等問題的一個範例。”
