A study of nearly one million UK adults found that people who preferred their tea or coffee “very hot” had about three times the risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, compared with those who drank them warm. The same link did not appear for the other major type of oesophageal cancer.
It’s the latest piece of evidence that adds to a long-running suspicion that repeated heat damage to the oesophagus, rather than anything in tea or coffee itself, may help drive cancer risk.
The Hotter the Drink, the Stronger the Signal
The Oxford team combined data from 510,112 participants in the Million Women Study and 467,170 in UK Biobank. Participants reported whether they liked hot drinks warm, hot or very hot, and how many cups of tea and coffee they drank each day. Researchers linked those answers with cancer records over average follow-ups of 14.2 and 11.1 years.
Among the 977,282 participants, 1,045 developed oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and 1,303 developed adenocarcinoma. After accounting for how many hot drinks people consumed, those who preferred them “hot” had a 69% higher SCC risk than warm-drinkers.
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