Do you crave coffee every day? If so, then there's good news for you. A new study suggests that drinking several cups of coffee every day may be linked to a lower risk of developing prostate cancer. The study, published in the journal BMJ Open, showed that each additional daily cup of the brew was associated with a reduction in relative risk of nearly 1 percent.

"This study suggests that increased coffee consumption may be associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer," according to the researchers of the study, including Xiaonan Chen, Department of Urology, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer and the sixth leading cause of cancer death in men. Nearly three out of four cases occur in the developed world, and since the 1970s, new cases of the disease have risen sharply in Asian countries, including Japan, Singapore, and China. In a bid to advance understanding of the issue, the researchers trawled research databases for relevant cohort studies published up to September 2020.

They pooled the data from 16:15 reported on the risk of prostate cancer associated with the highest, compared with the lowest, coffee consumption; 13 reported on the risk associated with an additional daily cup.

ALSO READ: E-Cigarettes Are A Gateway For Those Who Become Daily Cigarette Smokers

The highest level of consumption ranged from 2 to 9 or more cups a day; the lowest level ranged from none to fewer than 2 cups a day. The included studies were carried out in North America (7), Europe (7), and Japan (2). They included more than 1 million men (1,081,586) of whom 57,732 developed prostate cancer.

Compared with the lowest category of coffee consumption, the highest category was associated with a reduction in prostate cancer risk of 9 percent. And each additional daily cup was associated with a reduction in risk of 1 percent. Coffee consumption has been linked to a lower relative risk of liver, bowel, and breast cancers, but as yet, there is no conclusive evidence for its potential role in prostate cancer risk reduction, the researchers said. (IANS)