Coffee and tea intake and risk of brain tumors in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort study123

Background: In a recent US cohort study, total coffee and tea consumption was inversely associated with risk of glioma, and experimental studies showed that caffeine can slow the invasive growth of glioblastoma. Objective: The objective was to examine the relation between coffee and tea intake and the risk of glioma and meningioma in a large European cohort study, the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Design: Data on coffee and tea intake were collected from men and women recruited into the EPIC cohort study. Over an average of 8.5 y of follow-up, 343 cases of glioma and 245 cases of meningioma were newly diagnosed in 9 countries. We used Cox proportional hazards models to examine the relation between coffee and tea and brain tumors. Results: We observed no associations between coffee, tea, or combined coffee and tea consumption and risk of either type of brain tumor when using quantiles based on country-specific distributions of intake. However, a significant inverse association was observed for glioma risk among those consuming ≥100 mL coffee and tea per day compared with those consuming