A new study reveals that breast cancer patients who drink two or more cups of coffee daily have a decreased risk of relapsing, compared to women who do not drink the popular morning pick-me-up.
The research, from Lund University in Sweden, was based on women who are already taking the breast cancer drug Tamoxifen.
"We have patients who take the [anti-hormone] drug Tamoxifen and drink two or more cups of coffee per day have lower incidence of relapse," said Helena Jernström of Lund University as quoted by The Local.
But the study's findings are limited in that only women who completed breast cancer treatment and were taking Tamoxifen were accounted for in the research.
"This is our theory. This is an initial study and we need more research to rule out any other causes that we might not have asked about," Jernström said.
Tamoxifen is often prescribed to patients following breast cancer treatment to help slash the risk for relapse.
But whether coffee can help boost the anti-hormone drug's efficacy or help cut the risk on its own is a theory that has been studied before.
Researchers working on a 2011 study from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm concluded that women who drank five or more cups of coffee daily had a decreased risk for developing non-hormone-responsive, or ER negative, breast cancer in comparison to women who rarely or never drank the beverage.
"There is more and more data with many different theories which make the link," Jernström told the Local, adding that more research must be conducted to better determine the possible benefits associated with drinking coffee.
For the most recent study, published in the journal Cancer, Causes & Control, researchers analyzed data based on 634 Swedish women.