Drinking very hot beverages increases the risk of developing squamous cell esophageal cancer more than threefold, according to scientists who conducted a large-scale study involving nearly a million people in the United Kingdom, the website infohub.kz reports.
The work was published in the International Journal of Cancer. The researchers combined data from the Million Women Study and the United Kingdom Biobank, examining the records of 977,282 participants over 11–14 years of follow-up. During that period, 1,045 people were diagnosed with squamous cell esophageal cancer and another 1,303 with esophageal adenocarcinoma.
According to the analysis, respondents who preferred to drink their tea or coffee "very hot" faced more than three times the risk of developing squamous cell esophageal cancer compared with those who chose "warm" drinks. The temperature of the beverages, however, had no significant effect on the development of adenocarcinoma.
It also emerged that drinking six or more cups of hot beverages a day raises the risk of squamous cell esophageal cancer by 71%, regardless of their temperature. Adding milk to tea or coffee did not change the association found.
The authors note that hot liquid can cause thermal damage to the squamous epithelium in the upper esophagus. According to modeling, if the association identified is causal, simply lowering drink temperatures from "very hot" to "hot" would prevent about 440 cases of squamous cell esophageal cancer in the United Kingdom each year.